Butterfly Kisses
by xh4z3L3y3sx
Summary: Rory wiped some existing tears from her cheeks. “It’s not what I want. I just…I want us both to be happy. Why can’t that happen? It always has to be some big drama between us. You storm out, I storm out…” Lit. Not just another baby fic, I promise. R & R
1. A Family Meeting

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Background: Rory and Jess slept together in Last Week Fights, This Week Tights. But, he leftonce Rory told him that she couldn't be with himthe next morning.Rory is currently taking a break from Yale until the baby is born, and living in the apartment above of Luke's. Which means, that Lorelai and Luke are dating and living together. Rory is five months. Oh yeah, Rory and Dean did NOT sleep together.

A/N: I know, I have been writing new stories like crazy lately. I bet most of you are pretty tired of me. lol. But, this idea just popped into my head lastnight and I just had to write it. I hope you like it!

* * *

Rory walked through the isles of the bookstore. She waddled over to a section where there were some books on the floor, she groaned, she would never be able to reach the books. She tried pretty hard to bend down but it wasn't happening. Just then, her cell phone rang and the books were forgotten. 

"Hello?" Rory sighed.

"You sound like you have just spotted a mess and can't bend down to pick it up because you are what, ladies and gentlemen? Fat and pregnant." Lorelai mocked.

"Okay, this bit is getting old."

"Mocking never gets _old, _my dear."

"Yeah, yeah. Did you want something?"

"World peace and my mother gone. Wait, those two are basically the same thing." Lorelai groaned. "She called because she wants to have brunch with me and Luke...she apparently wants to re-meet him. I don't understand, I mean, isn't it enough that we have to have Friday dinners every single night? But, now, an added brunch?"

"Ha. I don't have to go." Rory smiled, as she went behind the counter and typed in a name of a book.

"Come on..."

"Hey, I'm making up for the whole fat and pregnant comment."

"It's only true."

Rory rolled her eyes, sitting at the chair provided for her since she was five months pregnant and she couldn't stay up too long. "Are you coming by later with my sandwich?"

"Oy, this is what I hate about you living in Stars Hollow and working at a bookstore close to my Inn." Lorelai stated. "And no, Luke is sending someone to bring you your lunch...he is just being lazy."

"Why can't you do it?"

"Michel."

"That is always your excuse."

"And it works, doesn't it?" Lorelai smirked. "Now, I have to go. Tell baby no-name that I love it."

"It?"

"Well, you didn't want to find out the gender at the last doctor's appointment. Not my fault."

"Call it–,"

"Hoodlum junior." She interrupted.

"Mom." Rory warned.

"What?"

"Nothing. Love you. Little _it_ loves you too." Rory smiled, she hung up the phone, sighing deeply. She spent the rest of her day organizing the books that she _could _reach and she just ended up behind the counter. She liked the counter because it covered her stomach. Rory hated the way she looked at that second, and nobody could see that she was pregnant that way.

"Hey." Dean smiled, walking into the store.

"Dean. Hi." Rory waved. "How are you doing today?"

"Fine. What about you?"

"Ah, I'm just waiting for my sandwich." Rory replied. "Luke said he was going to send someone with it. Still waiting, he must have been caught up with something or other."

"I could go get it if you want..." Dean suggested.

"Nah. I'm okay."

"Alright. So, how are the cravings doing?"

"Not too good. I have to sleep in the apartment on top of the diner because that way when I sleep and everything, there's basically the stuff that I need in the fridge. Plus, it gives me more privacy. Kinda lonely though." She shrugged.

"Are you going to live there when the baby is born?"

"Probably. I don't know everything yet." Rory gave him a smile. "So, what are you doing here?"

"I was looking for a cook book for Lindsay. She said she wanted to make something special for our anniversary." Dean replied. Rory nodded. "Do you know where I could find a cook book in here?"

"Uh, we're just out...I don't know who buys cook books, but we don't have any in stock right now." She said after checking the computer. "I'm sorry."

"No, that's fine. We'll just have to go out to eat." Dean nodded.

"Congrats on the anniversary though." Rory gave him a fake smile. It's not that she wasn't happy for him. She was so glad that Dean and Lindsay were happy together. But, she couldn't help but be jealous. She always wanted that perfect marriage, specially now with the baby coming. But, she always liked Lindsay and she thought that she was perfect for Dean.

"Thanks. Let's hope she doesn't freak when I don't bring the book." Dean laughed. Then, something beeped. "Ah, that's my pager. Taylor needs something. I gotta go."

"Nice seeing you." Rory waved. He left the store in a hurry, and she just took out a book from her purse, settled behind the counter, and started reading.

She was interrupted five minutes later by someone ringing the little bell that she had on the counter. She had her nose stuck in a book and didn't look up, she held up one finger to show one minute. But, they kept ringing the bell over and over again until she got so annoyed, she stood up slamming her book closed.

"What the hell is wrong with you? When I tell you..." She drifted off when she saw who was standing in front of her. And boy, was she glad that she was behind the counter, if this person would have seen her stomach there could be problems.

"Hello." Jess smirked, ringing the bell once more.

"Stop ringing the damn bell, I will be with you in a second." Rory said coldly, then she realized that when she has slammed the book, it had fallen to the floor. "Shit."

"It's just a book on the floor, pick it up." He rolled his eyes.

"You don't exist." Rory stuck a finger at him. He raised an eyebrow at her. "What do you want?"

"Pick up the book."

"I don't want to."

"Why?" He insisted.

"I can't." She stated, trying the best she could to stay behind the counter so he wouldn't see her stomach. "If I don't want to pick up a book, then I don't have to! Okay?" She snapped.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What are you doing here, Jess?"

"I'll tell you after you get the book." Jess smirked, tapping on the counter, waiting for her to respond. She gave him a look, but tried to pick up the book, which was not working. She tried harder, but ended up falling over.

"Dammit!" She cursed from the other side of the counter.

"Here. Let me help you." Jess stated, walking behind the counter, but surprised when he saw Rory with a huge stomach. He tried to ignore it, as he offered her his hand, which she took. She cleaned herself off, walking out from behind the counter. "I guess congratulations are in order. Who's the lucky guy?"

"Umm, please don't ask me that question yet..." Rory drifted off.

"Rory Gilmore pregnant. Never thought I'd see the day."

"I wouldn't start being an ass just as yet." Rory exclaimed.

"And why is that, Rory?" Jess sighed, running a hand through his hair nervously.

"I don't want to do this here...there are people. And I don't want to attract attention to us." She took his by the hand and dragged him to the storage room, that was filled with old books. She sat on one of the stools, and he did the same with the one in front of her's.

"Here." He handed her a brown paper bag. "Luke said to bring you your sandwich...I didn't know what the whole big thing was about the sandwich...but, now I see."

"I'm glad that Luke didn't tell you."

"Why, Rory? You wanted me to leave you alone to let you be with the father of your baby in Yale. Because he is probably someone who is rich and your parents approve. You know what? Ha. There. I'm glad I didn't waste my time on you, you go and sleep with the next best guy after me. And now look at you, you are pregnant. I bet the father is very nice and everything, but–,"

"No, the father is a big ass." Rory shoved the sandwich into his stomach, tears in her eyes, and stormed out of the storage room and out of the store. Jess groaned, he had a squished sandwich against his stomach. He peeled it off and ran after her. She was waddling fast, but he could keep up with her. "Don't follow me, Mariano!"

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Jess exclaimed, trying to keep up with him. "I have tuna all over my shirt because of you."

"I'm pregnant because of you!" Rory yelled, tears in her eyes. He just stood there shocked. Rory shook her head in disbelief, and headed home in a huff, leaving Jess standing there like an idiot watching her go.

* * *

He was going to be a father. He couldn't get through that thought, it was too scary. And he wasn't supposed to be scared, he was supposed to be mad. Yes, mad. Mad at Luke for not telling him. Good. He found a distraction. He took a deep breathe as he stormed into the diner. 

"Is there an 'I hate Jess convention' somewhere around here or is it just me?" Jess yelled to Luke, who looked pretty clueless.

"What are you talking about?"

"Rory is pregnant."

"So?"

"She is pregnant!"

"And?"

"And I helped!" Jess yelled.

"Ah, geez." Luke mumbled, putting down the coffee pot. "I knew that, Jess. You don't have to put it that graphically." It took all of Jess' strength not to kill his uncle at that second.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Didn't think you'd wanna know, _daddy._" Luke mocked.

"Don't call me that!" Jess exclaimed. "And I know that's not true...now, tell me the truth. Why did you not call me and tell me that Rory was pregnant with my baby?" Everyone in the diner started whispering to themselves.

"Rory asked me not to."

"Since when do you listen to her?"

"She is the mother..."

"And I'm the father!"

"I don't know, Jess. Lorelai tried to talk Rory out of it, but she wanted to wait and tell you herself. I don't know what is going through a pregnant woman's brain! So, leave me out of this."

"Would you mind if I kill you right now?"

"I would!" Lorelai chimed in, stepping into the diner. "Hi, Jess. I just want you to know that I hate you with every fiber of my being and it's taking all the will power that I have not to kick you in the groins repeatedly."

"Oh yeah, spread that small town charm." Jess mumbled sarcastically. "Why didn't Rory want me to know?" He asked Lorelai this time.

"Know what? I don't know what your talking about." Lorelai acted clueless.

"Lorelai." Jess warned.

"Fine. She said she would give me a cookie if I didn't tell you." Lorelai stated. Jess just rolled his eyes. "Jess. Come on, you don't want a kid on your hands. Why would Rory ruin the life you have right now for a kid?"

"I already ruined her life, why can't my life be ruined?"

"Rory always believed in you. She wants something better for you." Lorelai sighed. "She's was just being stubborn."

"Gee, this is just great. My whole family having a secret meeting about me behind my back." Rory exclaimed sarcastically. They all turned their heads to find Rory looking at the from the door. "I can't believe you!"

"Well, this is going wonderfully so far." Lorelai bit her lip.

A/N: What did you think? This is going to be a Literati, just to clear that up. Also, i made Dean all friendly with Rory because I thought it would be different and interesting if he was just her friend, and didn't play the part of the jealous boyfriend or ex-boyfriend. But, don't worry, I'm not going to make Jess and Dean friends...I'm not that crazy. :P I hope that you liked it, sorry if there are any mistakes for spelling and stuff...but, I'm looking fora BETA for this story. anyone who is interested can tell me in the review or send me an email. Okay, this author's note is becoming pretty long. Please just review and tell me if I should continue!


	2. Problems, Problems

Disclaimer: I don't anything.

A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews! I have so many plans for this story, I can't wait to write them out. I'm really excited, and that means that it's going to be good. lol. Okay, on with the story...

* * *

"This is incredibly stupid." Rory exclaimed, in frustration. "I need to talk to you!" She looked at Jess. "Not anyone else right now...you! You , you, you!" She looked like she was having a fit like a three year old.

"Him?" Lorelai couldn't believe it.

"Yes. I need to talk to _him. _Unless other people in this room want to feel the wrath of the pregnant lady who killed the diner owner, the coffee addict, and the stupid leather jacket wearing jerk!"

"Nice insult." Jess rolled his eyes.

Everyone just stood there looking at him after that comment. Lorelai had to keep herself from laughing, she could obviously know that he was making matters worse. But, he was pretty clueless at that second. And everyone knew that she was upset when she turned on her heel and ran up the stairs.

"Where is she going?" Jess asked, not knowing the arrangement.

"To her apartment." Luke replied nonchalantly as he poured his girlfriend more coffee. Jess just stood there, and Lorelai raised an eyebrow at him. "What the hell are you still doing down here?"

"Yeah. She's counting how long it takes you to go after her. I know, we've all been through it."

Jess didn't want to apologize, he didn't think he had a good enough reason to have to apologize to her. He knew it would be constantly thrown in his face if he didn't go up there soon and talk to her. Besides, he wanted to talk to her...right?

He sighed, turning the way to the apartment. Lorelai patted him on the head and said, "Good boy." With that, he rolled his eyes and made his way up the stairs. When he got to the door, he simply walked into the apartment. Jess found her sitting on the edge of her bed, eating an apple.

"Took you six minutes and thirty-four seconds." Rory mumbled, taking a bite out of her apple.

"Didn't know I was being timed." He simply shrugged, sitting at the couch, next to her bed. He instantly thought of everything that had happened on that couch. Which made him smirk inside...if that was even possible.

"Yes you did. Mom told you. I know she did because I spied." Rory sighed. "You guys underestimate me...your not the only one that can be sly."

"Oh, I know you can be sly." He smirked.

"What took you so long?"

"Is this your apartment?"

"Don't answer a question with a question."

"Tough."

He had missed their witty conversations about nothing and everything. But, she had still not even given him a hint of a smile, she just frowned at him. So, he decided to move next to her at the edge of the bed. She looked about to burst, and pushed him off.

"Not yet, Mariano." She raised an eyebrow at him.

He just sighed, and took his place on the couch again. "Is this your apartment?" She simply nodded, not really wanting to discuss anything with him. "It's nice." She looked at him strangely.

"It's the same thing but with feminine products."

"Woah. You sure have changed." Jess smirked. "Usually you would have been shy and talked to me right away. You haven't even blushed once since I got here...now, there must be something wrong with me, or your just completely different."

"I don't know how you could have expected the old Rory." She snorted. "'Specially in this situation. I mean, this is kinda strange...I'm still mad at you from High School for being a complete ass. And now your the father of my baby, coming back because you feel like it."

"I never said I was coming back."

Rory looked down at her feet, she didn't want to hear that, but it wasn't like she was surprised. "I didn't expect you to." She exhaled, looking up at him and meeting his eyes with her's for the first time. "Why are you here anyways?"

"I don't know."

"You never know! Why can't you be normal for once and know something? Like the second that pregnancy test turned out positive I knew I had to get my head in the game. But, you...you don't have to do anything. You come here when you want to, not knowing anything and not caring about what happens while you're here."

She started building up more anger inside of her while she gave her 'speech.'

"I don't even want you here, Jess! I was doing fine and now your here—,"

"Why does that have to mess up anything?" His voice was now at the point of yelling too.

"Because every single freaking time you come here, you seem to do something stupid or be an idiot...I don't know how you can do it, but you mess up my life more than it had been every time you visit Stars Hollow." She yelled. "I don't think you belong here."

"It doesn't matter what you think, Rory. I can be here if I feel like it. And if that makes you angry, fine! I don't know what to say to you right now..." He ran a hand through his hair angrily. "Come talk to me when you can actually be reasonable."

"I don't want to talk to you! Ever!"

"Hm. I'll hold you to that." He nodded, storming out of the room.

Rory just watched the door after he was gone. She hadn't want that conversation to go like that. She wanted it to go civil so they could talk about the real situation. God, she was such a jerk. Bringing up the past like that, and then picking a fight. She definitely didn't want _that _to happen.

She tucked her chestnut brown hair behind her ears, and laid down on her bed. She looked at the bookcase next to her bed. Luke had built it for her so she could reach any book she wanted from her bed. She reached the one book she was looking for and sighed.

Oliver Twist.

She officially hated him for making her relive the past. A past she hated, and every time he visited or even made a phone call, he would make her turn those pages back in her life and redo everything. And she hated him for making her feel like this. He was the only one that could do that and it scared her.

She patted her stomach as if to say goodnight, although she was just taking a nap. Sleep washed over her quickly, and she left Oliver Twist be.

XX

Rory got changed quickly, she was late. She had breakfast with her mom in two minutes and she needed to fix her hair; which was a mess. It took her longer to comb her hair now, because her hair had grown in more. She combed the slight curls down forcefully and exited the apartment quickly.

When she made her entrance into the diner, she could feel all eyes on her. She hated gossip, and she knew word had spread about her and Jess pretty quickly. Specially, after Ms. Patty had seen the whole confrontation at the book store when she was buying her monthly magazine.

"Good morning, mom." Rory smiled, taking a seat next to her mom. "Sorry I'm late, but I overslept."

"Oh honey, if I had a penny for every time _I _had overslept then I would be a very rich woman."

"Mom, I think the saying goes 'If I had a penny every time _you _did this or that.'" She waved her hands around as if to show her point. Her mother just smiled at her and shrugged. "Luke! Coffee!"

"No Luke and no coffee." Jess appeared in front of them with a plate of pancakes in his hands. He set the plate down in front of Lorelai and poured her some more coffee.

"Where's Luke? And why no coffee?" Rory asked him, annoyed.

_'I thought she wasn't going to talk to me. Huh.' _He thought, smirking. "Luke is at Doose's talking to Taylor and he gave me specific instructions not to give you coffee...or Lorelai. But, she's hopeless because even after I told her no she started singing the 'coffee is good and if you drink it you become a super hero' song."

Rory looked slightly confused, then turned to look at her mother.

"What? It was the best I could come up with at eight o'clock in the morning."

Rory sighed, "I still want my daily caffeine."

"You can't drink coffee when your pregnant." Lorelai pointed out, Jess nodded in agreement. Rory just gave her mother the evil eye, and groaned. "Ha! I always wanted to brag about me having coffee and you not."

She raised an eyebrow at her mother.

"I have coffee and you don't!" She mocked.

Rory turned to Jess who was looking at Lorelai questioningly. "I want an omelet and some orange juice. And don't forget...decaf. Luke let's me have it because he knows I get cranky without my jolt."

"Fine with me." He mumbled.

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine."

Jess just shook his head in disbelief and went on his way. He didn't want to fight with Rory in a public place, specially with Babette hanging around. She was 'in charge' of the morning news.

"Now, was there tension there or was it just me?" Lorelai raised an eyebrow at her daughter. She shrugged, looking down at her hands and fiddling with her thumbs. "Why so many fine's, hon?"

"Why is he still here?" She asked, instead.

"I asked first."

Rory hesitated as if to tell her or not. "Me and Jess got into a big fight yesterday in the apartment."

"Oh, shock." Lorelai replied sarcastically. "Come on, you can't possibly be mad about that. I mean, if you and Jess don't fight when he's here then the world comes to an end...you had to have been expecting this."

"Yeah. But, I didn't want it to happen."

"Sweets, trust me when I say this--,"

"Last time a sentence started like that, I ended up sitting in the middle of Grandma and Grandpa's pool house, soaked because you had pushed me into their freezing pool."

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Shush you and listen." She nodded, biting her lip. "When I was pregnant with you, I didn't give Chris a chance...and I didn't let him help me or anything, because my giant ego was standing in the way. And you know what? I totally regretted it. It would have been nice to have him around to help me..."

"Do you still regret it?" She swallowed hard.

"Well, you know, I have Luke now. And I wouldn't trade him for anything...but, I just think that it would have been easier for me to have someone around to help me." Lorelai placed her hand on her daughter's. "Besides, I didn't love Chris...but, you, -for some un-known reason- love Jess."

Rory took her hand away from her mother's. "I don't love Jess."

"How long is your nose?"

She rolled her eyes. "Mom, I'm not lying. It's the truth. I don't love Jess, I have no feelings at all for him or...anyone. I'm just on my own now, with the baby. But, nope, no love for anyone."

"Denying a problem doesn't solve a problem." Kirk butted it from the table next to them. "You know, I had a similar problem with my imaginary girlfriend; I was getting too clingy and she left me."

Both girls looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"Kirk! Get out!" Luke yelled as he entered the diner with anger. "Out! Out! Out!"

"But I haven't finished my toast."

Luke took him by the arms and threw him out the door with anger. Then, threw his toast after him. He slammed the door with rage and walked behind the counter to finish his work.

"Mental note; never make Luke angry." Lorelai whispered.

"Noted." Rory nodded.

Jess looked at Luke strangely. "What the hell is wrong with _you_?"

"Nothing."

"Sure. So, throwing Kirk out the door, throwing a toast at him, and then practically breaking the door because you slammed it so hard is nothing?" Jess raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah." Luke nodded forcefully.

He shrugged. "Huh. I must be wrong."

"You must."

Jess smirked, leaning against the counter, and stared at his uncle. He knew this would drive him crazy and he would eventually talk to him. Not that he was feeling rather chatty that day, but he needed a distraction from Rory; who was now looking at him.

He started humming a tune from The Clash, tapping his fingers against the counter.

"Fine!" Luke groaned, taking Jess by the arm and leading him into the storage room.

"We're not going to make out in here, are we? Because you know I'm just not that kind of guy." Jess smirked, looking at Luke.

He rolled his eyes, "Shut up, will you?"

"Just hurry up and tell me already."

Luke started pacing back and forward. "I want to marry Lorelai." He blurted out.

"About time."

"Huh?"

Jess sighed, not really wanting to explain everything to his clueless uncle. "It took you long enough to actually date her and now your getting pretty damn old. It's better to do it now than waiting until your fifty and wrinkly."

"And how nice you put it." Luke rolled his eyes.

"So, you want to marry Lorelai...what's the problem besides me and Rory would be cousins while she has my baby?"

"I wanted to buy the Twickham house! And guess what?"

Silence.

"Guess what?"

"I'm not going to guess."

"Fine. Kirk put in a competing offer!" He threw his hands out.

Jess chuckled, "Man, I knew he worked in every job in town for a reason. Does he even have a girlfriend?" Luke groaned and nodded. "Wow, now this is just sad. He has a girlfriend and I don't!"

"Get over it and help me."

"I'm sorry, Uncle Luke, but I have my own problems. Like you said, get over it." Jess smirked, exiting the storage room and leaving Luke to pout some more.

XX

Rory had to work at the bookstore that afternoon, but Lane had come to keep her company and also because she had heard about the whole Jess thing. But, in some way, she hated being around Lane. She was thin and pretty, not like her, who was fat and pregnant. But, she knew she could always count on her.

"Did you slap him?" Lane exclaimed, outraged after Rory had told her what happened in the apartment.

"I felt more like he had the right to slap _me,_ not the other way around." Rory smiled, taking a bite out of the sandwich Lane had brought her. "I mean, I was being a complete jerk. And I even think that mom told me to let him help me out."

"Was your mom abducted by aliens or replaced by an identical creature programmed to like Jess?"

"Maybe." Rory laughed. "But, should I?"

"Should you what?"

She sighed, "Let him help me with the baby...or talk to me? I mean, whichever one is very necessary." Lane rolled her eyes. "I don't know anymore. Because now, I have to think for two now."

"Eat for two." Lane corrected her friend.

"Nope. I'm pretty sure it's think for two." Rory groaned, and suddenly jumped. "Okay, I have this weird feeling in my stomach, bubbles popping...it's really odd." She placed her hand on her stomach.

"Are you okay?" Lane asked, cautiously.

Rory smiled, "Yeah. I think it's the baby kicking."

"Really?" She squealed. "Cool. Can I feel?"

Rory nodded, and let her friend place a hand on her stomach. They squealed and Lane jumped up and down, then just talked about the baby. Lane told her how lucky she was, and she thought for once, that maybe she was.

A/N: Okay, so this is basically a filler chapter. The next chapter will be much more fun to read and better. Please review and the chapters will be up faster! I promise.


	3. The UnLorelai

Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls...it's as simple as that.

A/N: Okay, I apologize in advance for the shortness...but, I needed to end it right there. A cliffhanger, perhaps? Haha..I am evil. But you see, there is a catch...if you want me to update, then you actually have to give me your thoughts on this story and this chapter. Is that too much to ask? I think not. lol. Okay, well, I hope you like it. I'm already writing the next chapter for you guys, but you need to earn it as all the good things in life. So, remember to review!

* * *

Lorelai took out one of the dresses that were laying next to Jess, who was looking uncomfortable. The one she picked up was red and short, which she said looked slutty. But, Jess would point out that black makes her look sex crazed for some reason. And that was when Lorelai stopped listening to him for a while.

Lorelai showed him the dress for the third time, "Okay, It is raining outside really hard, and I think that we should decide on a color...this dress might be it. What do you really think?"

He shifted in his seat. "I think I need to get out of here. Because I am no help to you...I mean, I'm a guy. And a guy is not supposed to help you get ready for a date with your boyfriend. Maybe a gay guy, or Rory. Yes, Rory. Why didn't you ask her?"

She shrugged, "We have to bond."

"No. We really don't." Jess shook his head, standing up. But, she just pulled him down again. "Hey, if I remind you that I knocked up your daughter, will you go back to hating me and kick me out?"

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Nope. It just says that we have more of a reason to bond. You are living on my couch and are the father of my grandchild. If that's not reason enough to bond, then I don't know what is."

"Why do you suddenly like me?"

"I don't. Trust me, I don't. But, I need help, and we need to bond. Period. Stop complaining." Lorelai groaned, picking up a pair of high heels. "Hey, do you think these make me look slutty?"

He ran a hand through his hair, "You think everything makes you look slutty. Maybe it's just because you really are slutty?"

Lorelai gave him an evil eye. "Play nice."

"Hey, you don't want to look like a regular after school special though, right?"

She sighed, "Yeah. I want him to come and get it..."

He groaned, "Eww. Now that's my sign from the gods to leave. Goodnight." He mumbled, leaving the room. He walked down the stairs to see Luke fixing his hair in the mirror of the living room. "You guys have problems." He shook his head in disbelief, sitting down on the couch.

Luke looked at his nephew weirdly, "And why is that?"

"First of all, you live together, and second of all, you eat dinner together every single freaking day...what is the big deal when you go on a date?" Jess exclaimed, leaning against a pillow.

"Dates are different than dinners."

He raised an eyebrow, "Dates _are _dinners, smart man."

Luke rolled his eyes. "Okay, whatever. I'm just waiting for Lorelai and then you can go back to sitting there reading a book." He mumbled. Jess looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"Am I supposed to be somewhere else?"

"Well, talking to Rory might be better than sitting there."

He shook his head. "Nope. She needs to make the second move...I talked to her first, now she needs to talk to me." He sighed. "Besides, I do not want to deal with her right now."

"No, but you want to deal with your Hammingway?"

Jess chuckled, "Hemmingway."

"I don't have time to actually memorize your author's name. You're lucky that I actually got the -mmingway part."

"Mmingway?" Jess raised an eyebrow at him.

"The Last part of Hem."

Jess sighed, looking down at his book, "This conversation is making no sense at all anymore."

At that moment, his uncle's eyes weren't fixated at him, they were looking at the head of the stairs where stood a ready Lorelai. This was the first time Jess had ever seen Lorelai so un-Lorelai like. She seemed unsteady and nervous, not very confident in herself. Until, she reaches Luke and holds on to his hand tightly.

Jess smiled, "That was fast."

Lorelai made no witty comeback or yelled at him, she simply nodded. Her eyes were looking at the floor, and Luke was looking uncomfortable.

"Go. Have fun. Get laid." Jess smirked, shooing them off. Luke just rolled his eyes as they both exited the living room and the house. He closed his eyes tightly, breathing out. He could only wish for the relationship that his uncle had with Lorelai. They were soul mates, and he needed someone right about then. He felt alone, and knew that it wasn't going to be the only time.

The doorbell rang and he put down his book that was resting on his lap now. As he walked through the living room, the doorbell just kept on ringing and ringing. He groaned, opening the door to reveal a wet Rory. Her clothes were soaking wet and her hair was hanging loosely and wet.

She sniffled, "Did I ever stop to mention how happy I am that you're here?" Tears were coming down her cheeks. She leaned in and hugged him tightly, soaking him...but, he never felt more warm in his whole life.


	4. New York is not Having a Baby

Dislcaimer: I wish I owned Gilmore Girls, but I am pathetic and I don't.

A/N: Okay, so, I know, this was a fast update. The fastest I have ever updated..but, I just got a huge muse last night and I got into the writing mood. lol. I think I listened to only one song while writing this: Day Dream Believer. It's an oldie, but it's the only song in the world that I can listen to over and over again and write. Well, great, now I have reavealed my secret. Consider yourself lucky. lol. Enjoy!

And now...on with the story.

* * *

Jess returned to the living room, handing Rory a cup of hot chocolate and sitting next to her. In some way, she looked the image of perfection at that minute. Her hair was still wet and it covered a small part of her eyes, as it hung over her radiant face. She had a blanket wrapped tightly around her, but still, her stomach stuck out like a sore thumb. And the fact that she was in his Metallica shirt, and a pair of old maternity shorts that Lorelai had made her even more beautiful. It was so amazing how he could study her face and know exactly what she was thinking.

She was looking down at her hands at the second, twiddling with her thumbs. When she looked up, he could feel all his walls come down. She knew this, as she smiled at him, setting her cup of hot chocolate down on the table.

He cleared his throat, leaning back. "So, should you start explaining, or should we sit here in silence for about a hundred more centuries?"

She bit her lip. "You know, as I thought up the idea to come here...I wasn't exactly thinking." She choked back tears. "Well, I was thinking, just not about you. Or us. Or if there should be an us. I don't know...but, it definitely wasn't about you or me. Or both of us."

Jess gave her a reassuring smile.

"The whole day, you know, I was thinking about the baby. My stomach, and the baby. I was being paranoid for almost the whole entire day." She sighed. "A few days ago...the baby kicked. And oh my god, I had never been so excited and upset at the same time."

He looked confused, "Upset? Rory, come on, this is something that you would be so wonderfully naively be bouncing on the walls about."

A tear rolled down her cheek. "I'm not that girl anymore, Jess."

"Yes, you are." He exclaimed, more forcefully than he had intended.

"No, I'm not."

He ran a hand through his hair, "Yes, you are, Rory. You have to be. I can't...I just can't have you any other way. As you go through this, your going to be that girl. And for the rest of your life you're going to be that girl. Forever. Okay? You need to be...for me."

She felt so much pain as he was on the verge of breaking down. "I thought about my mom...and how she looked when I told her that she was going to be a grandmother. I made five pro/con lists...the minute I found out, we needed to have a plan. And I did...but, it's really really not working."

Jess looked confused, "What do you mean?"

"When I felt that baby kicking...everything became reality. And as much as you hate to think this when you're a kid and stupid...reality hurts. Oh my god, it hurts so bad. And as Lane was squealing and jumping up and down, I was putting my hand on my stomach and listening to my person. A little tiny person. Mine."

She wiped tears away from her eyes.

"I was so scared...and not because there was an actual person growing inside of me. But, because I loved it so much. It scared me to death that I could love someone that I haven't even met yet or even looked at. And this love that I have...it's eternal. Forever. And I know this with so much faith."

He smiled, "Your going to have so many more moments like that in your future, Ror. Don't worry about it. Any doubts that you have right now...just think of that moment and I have a feeling that you'll be okay. Your future will be great."

She let out a sob. "It won't...It...it just won't. I'm not going to be like my mom. The plan was that I raise this kid by myself like my mom did...and her or him will be happy and live a normal life with his or her mother."

He looked deeply at her, asking her to continue.

"I remember what it was like to grow up with only my mom. I missed my dad when I wanted him to read me a late night story...or show me how to play a ridiculous sport that I would be horrible at. And I remember one night, I was seven. I was really scared because I thought that there was some horrible noise coming from outside...and my mom was talking on the phone. She was really busy, well, she always was. And I remember opening the curtain and having to be brave. I remembered that my mom asked me to be brave. I had to be brave..."

She let out another sob, and found the next minute that her hand was being covered by Jess'.

"I wanted my dad so badly. And that night...after I found out that it was only a racoon that had been bothering us. Well, I laid in my bed and thought. And a seven year old thinking about the heavy stuff? I mean, that's really messed up."

She let out a nervous laugh.

"I remember thinking about why my dad didn't want me...or why he wasn't there and if I really wasn't good enough to deserve my dad's love." She whispered.

Jess' eyes were gentle and kind, "Don't ever think that again...you are the most wonderful girl I have ever met...and being seven and thinking all those things. That must have sucked. There, I said it, it must have sucked. I know 'sucked' is a really elementary word...but, it must have." He sighed, getting to the point. "Well, just know that none of that is true."

She smiled at his nervousness. "I know that now...but, the point is. I don't ever want my kid to think that about her or his dad. Because...I know you better than that, and I know that you had an absent father too. You know how hard it is to grow up like that."

He nodded, "I know."

"So, I was just wondering...whenever you want to help me, or just if you want to, uh, you can. Because, I can't do this alone. And...umm, we can figure this out..maybe, uh, together? I mean, you don't have to. But–,"

Jess smirked, sitting up. "Now, that's the old Rory that I remember."

Rory rolled her eyes, "Just answer the question please."

"I would love to help you figure this out with you. But, on one condition..."

"Name it."

"No pink baby clothes." He cringed at the thought.

Rory laughed, "If it's a boy then I think that could potentially be a problem."

XX

Lorelai walked into the diner, sitting next to her daughter, and setting down a bunch of pamphlets in front of her. "Okay, it's not that I don't appreciate you getting out of my way that night of the date, and the fact that you spent the night at our house alone with Jess possibly doing something dirty makes me proud to call you my daughter, but Mama Kim really needs to stop giving me death glares and giving me these."

Rory picked up a pamphlet. "_'Having the Devil's Baby. A tragic Sin.'_" Lorelai rolled her eyes, Rory looked at her mother with a confused look. "Umm, mom, I take it that Mama Kim is still not leaving you alone about the whole having–,"

"The Devil's baby?" Lorelai laughed.

Jess appeared in front of them, "What are you laughing about?"

"Nothing." They both muttered in between giggles.

He looked over at the pamphlets, "What are those?"

"Yours." Rory smiled sweetly handing them all to Jess. He just rolled his eyes, and looked at Luke who came up to them and was now giving Lorelai a 'greeting kiss.'

Luke looked at the papers in Jess' hands, "And those are?..."

"Yours." Jess smirked, doing the same thing that Rory did.

Lorelai raised an eyebrow, "Could this be called recycling in some alternate universe?"

Jess smirked, and sat in front of Rory. Luke looked at them both oddly, and then turned to Lorelai. He motioned for her to talk to him over at the counter. They both stood up and walked to the counter, where Lorelai proceeded to lean against because she was tired.

Lorelai yawned, "What the hell do you want? My legs are paralyzed."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to talk to you about your legs..."

"Dirrty!"

"Okay, stop that." He looked at her, sighing. "What happened between them? I mean, the other day they were trading fine's and now their doing...that." He motioned to Rory and Jess who were talking.

She sighed, "It's called talking, Luke."

"Yes, but since when have they talked?"

Lorelai shrugged, sitting down at the nearest stool. "But, it's good, hon. They need to talk about things...and be friendly. As much as I liked raising a child as a single mother, Rory isn't like that. She needs someone, and I'm willing to bet that Jess is that someone right now."

"It's just weird..."

She smirked, "Not as weird as not being able to physically move because I had to run from Mama Kim."

Rory walked up to them, while putting on her large coat that covered her stomach now. "Hey, mom, Andrew just called me...he needs help, a bunch of tourists are over there." She smiled, kissing her mom's cheek.

"Okay. Uh, do you want me to walk you?" Lorelai offered.

Rory shook her head, "Nah. Jess is walking me. I'll see ya later."

Both, Rory and Jess walked out of the diner and Lorelai could do nothing much look at the door they had just gone out of as if there was something significant standing there. "Luke, I think I'm being replaced."

He sighed, "Weird."

She smiled at him, "Definitely weird."

XX

Rory sat at her computer, she was looking up baby names. Nothing seemed good enough anymore. She could never think of one, she didn't want something average, but she didn't want something that people couldn't pronounce. So, she was ripped between two completely different kinds of names. Plus, she had to decide if she wanted him/her having a middle name. She groaned, she was starting to regret not finding out the sex.

The phone rang, saved by the phone. She laughed at herself as she picked up her cell phone.

"Hello?"

"Rory." She recognized Jess' voice.

Rory smiled, "Hi, Jess. I am just on one of those ridiculous baby names sites, and let me tell you, they are just as stupid as they sound. Ugh, I just want this to be over. Do you have any suggestions?"

He hesitated, "I can't right now, Ror."

"Why not?" She sounded disappointed.

"I'm in New York."

Rory tucked a hair behind her ear, she felt tears burning behind her eyes. "Oh." She tried to keep herself from crying. "Why do you do this, Jess? Exactly when I need you, I mean, I did tell you I needed you. And am I totally crazy, but didn't you agree?"

He was about to say something, when she continued, interrupting him. "I mean, come on, get a grip. New York is not having a baby! Guess who is? I am. Not New York. Okay? That stupid city doesn't need you...I do. Why are you doing this?"

"Rory, Rory. Calm down."

She wiped tears from her eyes, "Why should I?"

He sighed, "I'm only in New York to get the rest of my stuff. I am moving to Stars Hollow."

Rory could squeal in happiness, but just smiled. "Huh."

A/N: Okay, take into consideration that I BETA'd this myself...and I suck. So, you see how the spelling and grammar may be bad. feel free to point out any mistakes, but don't write a paragraph on every single little thing. 'Cause those can get really annoying. If your going to write a lot, then make it all comments or compliments. lol. because you know I LOVE those long reviews. I hope you liked the chapter...

Review!


	5. Tangled Rory

Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls or anything that has to do with it...

A/N: Finally! Yes, I have updated. Yay, I feel so accomplished. lol. Okay, so, I apologize for this taking so long. I have had so much school and personal stuff lately. But, I have not forgotten about you guys. Updates are coming in all of my other stories, I promise. Okay, so, I hope you guys like this...it's not as long as I would have hoped it would be. But, at least I updated. On with the story...

"Twister?"

Rory narrowed her eyes on her mom. "Are you kidding me? We haven't played twister in like three years."

"Good. Now's our opportunity."

"No thanks. I don't want a tangled baby." She crossed her arms over her chest.

Lorelai giggled. "But it'll be funnier to look at."

"You know what? I'm really getting tired of people calling my daughter or son _it_. Do you think it's too late to find out the sex?" Rory sighed, leaning back against the couch. Lorelai shrugged, not really having the energy to respond. "Ooh! I have a game."

"Yay. Let's hear it." Lorelai smiled.

"It's new. It's called 'Call Jess and Luke to see if they can come over with food to see if we actually make it through the night without starving.'"

She frowned. "No, Rory. Remember, we're supposed to be taking a night off of all diner things."

"Including the diner men?" Rory inquired.

"Yes. Now think of something else." She patted her daughter's lap.

Silence.

Rory laughed, breaking the silence.

"What?" Lorelai asked, seeing if there was something she could take an interest in something.

"I just thought of something really funny Jess said."

She frowned. "What could it be? His whole vocabulary is one word. 'Huh.'"

"That's because your mean to him."

"Am not!" Lorelai gasped.

"You are."

"Yeah, well, Jess has weird style."

"Could you get any lamer?"

Lorelai smiled. "I actually could, isn't that amazing?"

Rory frowned, groaning. "Oh no."

"What?"

"We drifted back into talking about something diner related. Jess equals diner boy number two."

"Wow." Lorelai sighed. Then, turned to her daughter. "While we're on the topic, though…I think we need to make a new pro/con list."

"Why?"

"Because…we have some quandary here."

"Why Luke wears a backward baseball hat and a flannel shirt?" Rory smirked.

Lorelai gave her the evil eye, but continued. "The furniture for the apartment."

"What apartment?"

"The one you and Jess are going to live in from now on until forever and ever."

"What are you talking about?" Rory sat up, this catching her attention.

Lorelai sighed over dramatically, as if she were working with a three year old. "Rory, you know neither Luke or I expect you to raise this baby alone. Hell, you shouldn't have to raise the kid alone, that's what Jess is for."

"And I'm letting him help me, mom." Rory said. "He's only two blocks away."

"We need him to be two feet away."

Rory looked annoyed. "I don't need a bodyguard."

"I totally agree, men in black is out." Lorelai smirked. "But, come on, babe. How do you expect Jess to help you and be there for you in every step of the way if he's not there for the night time cravings, or the sudden jumps in the middle of the night because the baby kicked you, or what about the mood swings?" Lorelai sighed. "He can't do that two blocks away…"

"What are you saying?" Rory inquired.

"Rory, Jess needs to live with you to be able to do these things."

Rory immediately stood up. Her heart stopped, and her legs stopped moving. She could not believe her mother. Didn't she think that it would be a little weird if two people who are not currently dating to live together? Plus, with their current weird situation, she could not take on all that emotional baggage. And while all of these things were going through her head, she was pacing back and forward like she did when she was really stressed out and constantly biting her lip hard.

"Rory? Are you okay? It's simply a suggestion….don't get all freaked out on me."

She didn't seem to have listened to anything she said, because she turned straight in the direction of her closet. (They were in Rory's apartment.) Lorelai looked at her strangely, but followed her and watched her rummage through her closet.

Lorelai frowned. "Rory, come on, your scaring mama. Get your head out where I can see it so I don't go and call 911 on you."

Rory made some 'Hm' noise, then did take her head out of the closet, but with a box in her hands instead. Lorelai looked to see what the hell she was doing, and all she could see is her daughter shaking her head in disbelief.

"This," Rory pointed to the box, "is my Jess box." Lorelai frowned, knowing where this was going. "And you know what a 'Jess box' is? It's a place where I put all the crap that reminds me of the horrible relationship I had with Jess Mariano. I recently added some stuff."

She looked like a lunatic while she took out a pregnancy test and waved it in her mother's face.

"This," Rory pointed to the test, "is exactly why I resent Jess, and this," She pointed to it again, "Is also the reason why I, Rory Gilmore, am not moving in with that idiot slacker!"

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "I thought we liked Jess now."

"We like Jess when he mows our lawn, we like Jess when he gets us food or helps me decide on a name for the baby. But, we do not, and I repeat NOT like Jess when you suggest of our moving in together!" Rory huffed. "Understood?"

"Yes ma'am." She fake saluted.

Rory sighed. "I'm sorry I yelled. Mood swing."

Lorelai smiled, "Come here, honey." She reached out and hugged her daughter tight, placing a kiss on her forehead. "I am sorry for suggesting that you two move in together. And I know that it's already very, very generous for you to let him help you through this. But, I need you to understand that it's not going to be as easy as you picture it in your mind to be."

"Mom, I know this."

"Alright. As long as you know it." Lorelai sighed, looking down at the box. "Why don't we put the box away? I think it's just going to upset you sitting there."

Rory smiled, taking a big breath. "Thanks."

XX

Lorelai entered her home quickly, she was going to miss a meeting at the Dragonfly, if she didn't hurry up and get dressed. She ran upstairs, but she practically jumped out of her skin when she found Luke sitting on their bed. Lorelai exhaled, she was relieved it wasn't a murderer or something. Luke looked up from the paper that he was holding, and smiled.

"Don't you dare smile! I thought you were some kind of viscous murderer." Lorelai pointed a finger at him.

Luke wrinkled his eyebrows at her. "And a murderer would be laying on your bed while he just waited until you came home."

"Sure. If he was really stupid…he wouldn't know I secretly know karate."

He rolled his eyes, "You took two classes, then you 'sprained your ankle.'"

Lorelai smiled, and leaned down to give Luke a greeting kiss. "Okay, I have to get dressed." She took off her sweater off first, and then kept on going with every other article of her clothes.

"Hey, was Rory here?" Luke asked.

Lorelai hopped on one foot, trying to get her shoe on.

"Yeah. Last night. Why?"

"She left this." He held out a piece of paper that obviously had Rory's handwriting on it. She snatched the paper out of his hands and looked at it closely. She couldn't believe it, she smiled. It was a Pro/Con list.

_Moving in with Jess_

_Pros / Cons_

And then it had a bunch of stuff written in it. Like, her worries about the baby and how she or he needs her father. Stuff like that. Luke, of course, morbidly fascinated, and not having a clue of what was going on, stood up to look over her shoulder.

"Is it what I though it was?" Luke asked, unsteadily. Not really wanting to know the answer.

Lorelai didn't listen to him, though. She was too busy squealing for joy. Lorelai bounced on to the bed, analyzing the list closely to make sure she didn't miss anything. When Luke had seen she had finished, he sat next to her. "Oh my god! There are more Pros than Cons. Do you know what this means?" She turned to Luke in excitement.

"No. But I would like to, if you would just explain it to me."

Lorelai nodded, "Well, me and Rory were having like a weird night last night-,"

"I know those nights all too well." He rolled his eyes.

"So..." She continued, "I mentioned that we needed to get furniture for Rory and Jess' apartment."

"They have an apartment?" Luke looked confused.

Lorelai looked at him in a weird way. "Not yet."

"Yet?"

"Well, Luke, you didn't really expect Jess to come back and not live with Rory, did you? Especially since she's having his baby, and he needs to help out."

He nodded, "I totally agree. But, he can do that in his own apartment."

Since, Lorelai was just in her bra, since she hadn't finished changing, she put on her shirt and stood up. "Luke, Jess doesn't even have an apartment. He's living in our couch. And I love that couch, I don't want to see Jess on it all the time. Especially since he needs a real place to live."

"He's fine where he is for now."

Lorelai raised an eyebrow at him, "For now? He is going to be a father soon, Luke. I don't think he or she will want to see Daddy Dearest living on a piece of furniture. He needs his own room, and his own stuff."

He sighed. "Why does it have to be with Rory?"

"I'm sorry, but do you suddenly have something against Rory now?"

Luke stood up from the bed, and ran a hand through his hair. "Can we talk about this later? I really need to get to the diner."

Lorelai looked frustrated, not really caring to have an argument at that second. "Whatever." She put on a fake smile, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Bye, roomie." She patted his chest in a really mean way, and walked out of the room angrily

Luke groaned, and dropped on the bed again.

XX

Rory looked down at her stomach. She kept on doing that. Even though she was watching ER. Which was pretty interesting, she had to watch out to see if anybody had a baby, because she was apparently looking for any tips that she could find. Her mom said that she was nuts, and that right after she had the baby, she would take her to a mental hospital. But, today, she couldn't concentrate. All she could think about was Jess and the baby. That wasn't an uncommon thing, but, it was just racking her brain so much that it was getting annoying.

The ring of her cell phone finally took her mind off of Jess for a second, but then thought that it might be Jess. She sighed, and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Rory." Paris' voice boomed through her phone. "Hello."

Rory bit her lip, "Hi, Paris."

"You sound disappointed. Were you expecting a call?"

"Oh, no." She lied. "I'm happy to hear from you, really. What's up?"

"I was wondering if you would like to meet me for coffee...if you have the time, of course. I wasn't sure if you would be busy doing stuff about the baby. I just think it would be fun."

Rory's face lit up. "You know what? I think it would be good for me to get out of this apartment, I have been watching ER all day and I'm starting to get depressed with so many sick people. It happens every time I'm in a hospital, too."

"Alright, well, I'll meet you at the coffee shop that we always used to go to."

She nodded to herself, "See you there."

Soon, she made it to her old college hang out. Well, at least where she used to hang out with the few people she was friends with. She kind of missed it, though. Getting pregnant at 20 wasn't really her life plan. She knew that she kind of just focused on was books and learning, and now that her life was altering, she wished that she would have actually had a little more fun in her only year in college.

She spotted Paris at one of the tables. Rory waved, and went to sit with her.

"Hey." Paris greeted.

Rory gave her a friendly smile back. "God, I just realized how much I've missed this place." She looked around. "Sure, it's no coffee kiosk, but it's good to be here."

"How are you doing?" Paris asked, worriedly.

"Fine...why?"

"Oh, nothing." She tried to act as non-nonchalantly as she could. Rory gave her a look. She knew that she was never good at lying. "Alright, Gilmore, I'll tell you. But, you have to promise me not to freak out under no circumstances."

"Don't worry. I won't." Rory sat up, her full attention at her friend.

Paris sighed, "Tristin is here."

Rory blinked, "As in Tristin from high school?"

"Yea." She bit her lip.

"Wow...I thought he was in military school."

"Well, apparently he found out that you were going to Yale. And since, he is like a stalker or something, he enrolled here for this year." Paris rolled her eyes. "His dad probably made an exception with Yale, and paid some guy off just so he could get it. God, he annoys me."

Rory fiddled with her thumbs. "But, I'm not at Yale anymore...well, at least for now."

"Well, he must have known that you were at Yale last year, and hadn't bothered to check this year. He's a moron like that."

Rory looked confused, "Paris, how do you know all of this?"

She shrugged, "He came by a few days ago."

"To the dorm?"

She nodded. "Yes. He asked for you in the most cocky way, and when I told him that you had dropped out until you had the baby, he looked like a feather could knock him over. And it wasn't a pleasant surprised."

Rory groaned. "You told him that I'm pregnant?"

"Yes, god. Why couldn't I? It wasn't like you two have any chance now anyways. You are having a baby with diner boy."

"Paris, please stay out of my love life. This does not concern you." Rory snapped.

"Terrence said that you should go see a shrink. I agree."

"I'm sorry, okay? I'm just...just, really stressed out. Especially with the whole baby and Jess thing. I don't need Tristin in the middle of everything, you know?" Rory asked, Paris understood and nodded. She bit her lip. "Now, I think that I really need to go and figure all of this out."

Paris stood up. "Hey, don't worry. I'm sure he won't bother you while he's here."

Rory looked down, then gave her a fake smile. "Right."

A/N: Oooh, lots of drama! I love writing this. Okay, come on, you NEED to give me your opinions on everything that is going on.Because this chapter is specially juicy, and you have a lot to comment on. Love ya all, don't forget to review!


	6. Chip Cancer and Babyland

Jess knocked on the door of the storage room. He usually didn't knock,   
but this morning he was pretty sure that he had seen Luke go in there.  
And where ever Luke went, Lorelai followed...where ever Lorelai  
followed they pretty much ended up making out. But, he didn't get any  
moaning in response. Instead, he got a gruff "Come in." from the other  
side of the door.

Jess pushed the door open with his foot, since he was carrying a heavy  
box filled with about 50 jars of pickles. He looked at Luke, who looked  
like he was just staring at his feet. Jess rolled his eyes, and set  
down the box.

"Whatever is wrong with you, you better snap out of it because you are  
really starting to get pathetic." He raised an eyebrow at his uncle,  
and placed a jar on one of the shelves. Every Wednesday he was in  
charge of the pickle send in. So, he had to organize all of the jars on  
the special 'pickle shelf.' It was even labeled and everything.

"Since when do you knock before you go into a storage room?" Luke  
inquired.

Jess frowned, "Since you and Lorelai got a little heavy on the coupling   
in the storage room."

"Well, you can stop knocking because apparently we are not going to  
have those make out sessions in a long while." He sighed, leaning  
against one of the boxes, since he was sitting on the floor.

"Trouble in paradise?"

Luke suddenly remembered what the fight was about. And he was pretty  
sure that Jess would not want to hear that Rory was thinking about  
asking him to move in with her. It would ruin everything. Plus, Lorelai  
would hate him even more if he screwed this up. And he was already in  
bad waters with her. "Uh, no. You know how relationships are...just a  
tiny, minuscule disagreement."

"What was the disagreement about?...not that I care." Jess asked,  
trying to read his uncle's face.

"Nothing. I'm sure that we will make up really soon. In fact, she's  
coming in for lunch now. So, I'll just go." Luke stood up nervously.  
"Uh, bye." He exited the room quickly, almost tripping over a few boxes  
on the way.

Jess looked after him like he was a nut job, but then dismissed it and   
went back to his pickles.

XX

"Oh my god." Lorelai smirked.

Rory rolled her eyes, "Mom, please. Don't be immature."

"Well, I'm sorry, Rory. But, I don't know if you had realized this  
before...Tristin totally had the hots for you!" Lorelai squealed. "And  
usually I would object to such talk because I am such a mature woman,  
but, come on. This man has been after you since like ever."

"I like don't care." Rory sighed, opening her book for a distraction.

Lorelai snatched the book out of her hands. "You have to talk to him."

"Are you kidding me? I spent most of my high school years to get away  
from him. If I go see him, he's going to think that I have some on  
going attraction to him. Which, I don't." Rory bit her lip.

"Hon, you don't just have to love Jess. It's okay to have some feelings  
for Tristin when you see him again."

Rory's eyes bugged out. "I do not have feelings for Tristin! I despise  
Tristin. He has been nothing but sexually harassing me since the day  
that I went to Chilton. And I don't know if you know this, but I don't  
like being sexually harassed." She sighed.

"Not even by a cute boy?"

Rory narrowed her eyes on her mother. "No. Now, can you please let me   
read?"

"Fine, fine." She gave the book back, but looked at her with a smirk  
while she read. "Rory and Tristin sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.  
First comes love then comes marriage, then comes Tristin with the  
hoodlum's baby!" She sang. Rory rolled her eyes, and threw a pillow at  
her.

"You know what," Rory gave her the evil eye, "I would have never given  
you this piece of information if I knew that you would sing an  
elementary song."

Lorelai smiled, "Then you obviously don't know me, do you?"

Rory groaned, knowing that she wasn't going to get any work done that  
way. She sighed, and looked at the little white piece of paper that  
Paris had given her the day before. It was Tristin's address. She had  
been staring it down every since.

"You know, Ror, I would never tell you to do something unless I really  
believed it." Lorelai smiled. "I just really want to see you happy,  
babe. And if Tristin is who is going to make you happy, then so be it.  
I will be supportive for any path you choose. Even the Jess path..."

Rory gave her mother a small smile. "I'm going out."

Lorelai's face lit up and she immediately got excited. "I knew you  
would back down."

XX

You know how when you feel like every time you swallow your stomach  
just fills with more butterflies because you know that every breath you  
take you are just getting closer to the thing that you really don't  
want to do? Well, that was how Rory was feeling as she stood in front  
of Tristin's door. For all she knew, he could be out of town, or  
simply busy. She could be just wasting her time.

But, the butterflies didn't go away. And it wasn't like it was  
something special for Tristin. Because, believe me, it wasn't. But,  
every time that she got near anyone that used to know her back then  
when she was innocent and free to do whatever she wanted, she just felt   
completely nervous. Like that person was going to feel disappointed in  
her for her mistakes.

It was too late to turn back know though. She could hear voices.

"Hey, Dugrey! There's some freaky chick outside. She has sort of that  
whole pale and sickly thing going on! And I think that she is either   
really obsessed with food or she has a bun in the oven."

A guys' voice boomed through the door. She knew that what he was saying   
was directed at Tristin, who she knew at any moment would come out to  
see what the fuss was about. Rory also knew that this man had not seen  
her in person, but had looked through the tiny window to see who it was  
that was lurking around their dorm.

The door flung open to show a guy with dark hair and a pretty  
attractive face.

"Hello." He greeted her, looking her up and down as if she was a piece  
of meat.

Rory gave him an evil eye, "Hi, I'm Rory. And no, I am not obsessed  
with food, just simply attracted to the male species and one night  
landed me in baby land. So, yea, bun in the oven, as you so delicately  
put it. I am here to see Tristin, we know each other from high school.  
So, if you will kindly move aside then I will no longer have to  
associate with a dick head like you."

"Oooh, feisty. Exactly the way I like them." He smirked. "I'm Joel." He  
extended his hand, which she had to hesitate to shake. She pulled away  
almost instantly, which made his smirk widen. "You say your here to see   
Dugrey?"

Rory nodded, "Yea."

"Well, he's in his room right now. You can go on in or we can have more  
of this charming talk that we are just having so much fun doing." Joel   
proposed.

Rory scoffed and pushed him aside. When she entered the dorm, she could  
see that no one had probably ever cleaned up the common room. It looked  
like a garbage truck threw up. She looked around, and it looked like no  
one had unpacked either. Joel was sitting on one of the many boxes that  
seemed to still be packed with all of the boxes. It was already half  
way through the year and they hadn't even unpacked one single thing out   
there.

"Want a chip?" He held out a very old looking bag of chips with a  
smirk.

Rory rolled her eyes. "You know, you might want to have the health  
inspector looked this place over...I think you might have broken about  
all of the health codes." He just smirked and ate his expired chips.   
"Seriously, you are going to die of chip cancer."

"Funny, I've never heard of it."

Rory sighed, not really paying attention to Joel anymore. But, looking  
at the two doors. One had the initials: JM, which she guessed were  
Joel's initials. Then, the other door had the initials: TD, which she  
could say for certain that it was Tristin's initials. She moved across  
the room, and stood outside of the door. She was pretty sure that she   
didn't want to just burst in there and talk to him rudely. So, she  
knocked softly.

"I swear to god, Joel. This is the last time I tell you not to knock!"

She could hear Tristin's voice scolding Joel from the other side of the  
door.

"Uh, it's not Joel, Tristin. It's Rory." She yelled.

When she didn't get a response, she was kind of scared that he might  
not want to see her. But, she heard some shuffling around in the room,   
so she could guess that he was desperately trying to clean his room up  
before she could come in.

Rory heard a silent 'come in.' so she pushed the door open. And there,  
lying on the bed, was Tristin. She gave him a smile, which he returned  
with a smirk.

"Rory Gilmore, as I live and breathe." Tristin said in his normal cocky  
voice.

"Hi," Was all she could get out. It was awkward, all right. She was  
standing there, and he was pretty much trying his hardest not to say  
something about the stomach that was so obviously there. When Paris had  
told him that Rory was pregnant, he could hardly believe it. I mean,  
this does not happen on a daily basis. She was always so innocent, he  
could hardly believe that she even hopped in bed with a guy.

"What are you doing here?" He inquired, pointing to the chair next to   
the bed that he was sitting on.

"Paris told me that you stopped by the dorm...and she said that you  
wanted to see me." Rory stated, trying to sound as casual as she could.  
"And, I'm sure that you want nothing to do with me now that you know  
the actual circumstances of me dropping out of Yale."

He smirked, "Actually, I gave Paris my address after she told me. I   
just can't live without you, Gilmore."

"You've been doing a good job so far." She smiled.

"Well, not really." Tristin shrugged. "Military school was boring...so,  
I decided to come to Yale."

"Before or after you called the Dean to make sure that I was here?"  
Rory asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "Now, I know that our  
goodbyes were pleasant...but, come on. Tristin, did you actually think  
that I would be the same Rory and greet you with open arms?"

"Woah. Where did that come from?"

She sighed, this was getting difficult. "I don't know. As you can see,  
I am really just confused right now. I didn't come here to argue."

"Good. I didn't want to see you just to argue." He smirked, standing  
up. "How 'bout we go out to eat some lunch or something? Because,  
really, apparently we have a lot to catch up on...am I right?"

Rory smiled, "Let's go. I know just the place."

XX

Jess had watched Luke act weird all day so far. Every time he would  
come near him, then he would start rambling about something or another.   
And he knew that Luke was just a drama queen, because really, what  
could be so bad that he was hiding? Not anything that he could think  
of.

He stared ahead and saw Lorelai heading towards him for her afternoon  
caffeine.

"Is it possible to hate your place of employment?" Lorelai asked,  
sighing, and sitting down as fast as she could. "Because, really, I  
have been working on a plan to set the place on fire and then throwing   
myself in because I want to die with dignity." She smiled at the cup of  
coffee in front of her. "Thank you, wonder boy."

At that moment, Luke passed Jess by. "Uh, well, I'm going out...to do   
something with Taylor. You know? Work. Work, uh, work. So, yea. See you  
in two minutes." He stated awkwardly, then turned to Lorelai. "Hi. I'll  
be right back."

Lorelai raised an eyebrow at him, "I heard."

Then, he awkwardly left the diner and then waved from outside.

"Do you notice anything weird about him, or is it just me?" Jess  
inquired, leaning against the counter. Lorelai smiled, and took a sip  
of her coffee. "I don't usually tell my problems to my ex-girlfriend's   
mom but what the hell? I am already pathetic."

"That you are, my dear boy." She smirked.

He rolled his eyes. "Okay, so, do you know anything that is going on  
that I should know about?"

"Not specifically. Why?"

"Well, Luke mentioned that you two were on the outs. But, he wouldn't  
tell me the reason. Do you have any idea because I have been racking my   
brain all day and all I could come up is the grocery list for next  
week..."

"You are a man of the world, huh?"

"Do you know anything?" He asked, ignoring her comment.

She sighed, and looked around her. "I don't know if I should tell   
you...I mean, it has to do with you. And I don't know if I should tell  
you because Rory would probably have me killed if she knew that I told  
on her."

"It has to do with Rory?"

"Doesn't everything?"

"Then tell me. Because I really can not afford to be excluded from any  
information that might be crucial to our relationship."

Lorelai smirked, "Never knew you knew that many words."

Jess rolled his eyes. "Please, Lorelai."

"Fine, fine. But just because you said please." She sighed, "Rory is  
thinking about asking you to move in with her."

He blinked, "What?"

"Rory is thinking abou-"

"Who is that?" Jess interrupted, pointing towards a blonde man walking  
with Rory. Lorelai turned to see what he was pointing at.

She could have choked if she had anything in her mouth. Tristin and  
Rory were walking down the street, looking very into their  
conversation. And Lorelai could just see the jealousy in Jess' eyes.  
She bit her lip, not really knowing what she could possibly say to make  
this situation any better. But, nope, nothing was coming out of her  
mouth. Which, she had to say, was very rare.

"Lorelai." Jess warned, "I know you know who it is..."

She faked a smile. "Her brother?"

"Maybe if she had a brother then I would actually believe you." Jess  
frowned.

Lorelai sighed, looking around and finding Rory smiling at this guy.  
Except, when she turned around again, she didn't find Jess frowing  
anymore, he tried to hide his face.

"Umm, never mind." He said quickly. "I'll get you some coffee." He  
moved across the diner quickly, and once he had poured her coffee, then  
ran up the stairs. Lorelai looked after him and sighed, this was not  
going well. At all.

**REVIEW PLEASE!**


	7. Another One Bites the Dust

A/N: Okay, so it took me a few days to write this…you're all lucky because it usually takes me really long to get a chapter right. Well, I hope you enjoy…

Rory looked straight at Tristin with a smile. Of course, she had no idea that Jess and Lorelai had been watching her. "So, do you want to go inside? Best food in town, I swear." She smiled, putting a hand on her stomach.

"Let's go, then." He smirked, opening the door for her. She wasn't used to a guy doing that for her. She was usually treated as everyone else. She guessed that it was because her mother had always taught her never let a guy open a door for her, because women could do it themselves. Rory argued that it's a nice gestured, but usually her mom didn't care. Especially since she's so into women's right.

Rory smiled at him and entered the diner. She walked backwards, keeping eye contact. "You know, I would really like it if you called me Mary once again. I mean, it just doesn't feel right for it not to be that way."

Tristin shrugged, "Hey, it's our thing. I respect that." He chuckled, sitting at the counter with her by his side. Then, of course, was when all hell broke loose. Rory noticed Lorelai was sitting practically next to Tristin, only a seat away. Rory went around him, and gave her mother a hug.

"Mom. What are you doing here?"

Lorelai looked at her strangely. "I'm here 24/7. What else?" She looked at Tristin. "Hi. Lorelai Gilmore." She extended her hand, which he shook firmly. "Blondie, right?"

He smirked. "Tristin Dugrey, ma'am."

Rory's eyes widened. "Oops." She whispered to herself.

Lorelai smiled fakely. "Oh, honey, tell Jess, the father of your baby who works here and is upstairs mourning, that I owe him a buck." Although, she looked at Tristin when she said this. Rory raised an eyebrow at this. She looked back at Rory, "Bye, now."

Lorelai exited the diner fast, and awkwardly.

Rory sighed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Sorry 'bout that."

"What was that about? Did I do something to offend?" Tristin looked frustrated and confused.

Rory patted his back jokingly. "Well, you called her ma'am for one thing." She shrugged, and sat back down. "Plus, she has this thing where she tells you one thing, and then five minutes later then she wants to change her mind. I keep telling her that it's not how it works…but, she's stubborn."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Rory giggled. "Never mind."

Tristin smirked and nodded. "So, what is going on in your life, Mary? Except for this…" He gestured to her stomach.

"Nothing, really. I mean, my bra size went up a lot after I got pregnant." Rory said it casually, and Tristin smirked. "Sorry. I tend to tell people things that are awkward these days."

He chuckled, "It's cute."

She blushed and shrugged. "What about you?"

"Umm, well, my father has been telling me that I have to hurry up and settle down so I can take over the family business. But, the thing is, I have no clue what that is…because, of course, I fell asleep through his lectures."

"Who wouldn't?" She smirked. Then, her mind flew to Jess. What did her mother say? Jess was mourning? Upstairs? It was all a big jumble for her, but she tried to sit up and smile as Tristin talked to her. Then something occurred to her. What was she doing…Tristin. Jess. What? She sighed, and stopped him from talking. "Uh, Tristin, can you excuse me a sec? I really need to check on something."

He seemed to understand. "Go ahead."

She smiled and patted his lap before running upstairs. When she reached the stairs, she knocked lightly just in case he was sleeping or something. There was no response, so she just walked in. She looked around, and saw that Jess was lying on her bed.

She raised an eyebrow at him, and went over to him. She sat right next to him, on the edge of the bed.

"Hey." She smiled at him, looking at the slight curls of his hair.

He looked over at her, and gave her a look that only she knew what it meant. "Who's the blonde dick that you were flirting for? Don't you just think that this information is crucial to our relationship?" Sarcastic remark. Not good.

She tucked her hair behind her ears like she does when she's nervous. "Jess. Come on. I was not flirting."

He looked at the ceiling. "Right."

Rory suddenly felt a swing of rage come through her body. "What do you care anyways? It's not like you have any reason to be mad. I'm the one supposed to be mad." She stood up. "You can't tell me who I can hang out with."

"That was _not_ hanging out. That was a date, Rory."

Rory frowned, "Even if it was, what do you care?"

"I don't." He denied stubbornly, sighing. "Okay? I don't. I just…lost it for a second. Mood swing?" He tried innocently.

She smiled at him, sitting back down. "Fine. I forgive you…because I'm fabulous like that."

He smirked. "That you are."

They shared a look together, until suddenly Rory jumped.

"What, what?" Jess asked, alarmed, and sitting up. "Are you okay?"

She giggled, putting a hand on her stomach. "Baby kicked."

He let out a sigh of relief. "Huh."

Now, she gave him this really sincere look, and took his hand in her's. This, of course, surprised Jess. As, he wasn't used to this kind of behavior from a pregnant woman. But, what she did next was even more surprising. She took his hand and placed it on her stomach. He could feel the most amazing feeling in the world. His own amazing son or daughter.

With, her hand on top of his while he felt the baby, he couldn't help but smile. "Are we having a moment?" He whispered, smirking.

Her face brightened up. "I'm afraid so."

"Huh."

XX

Lorelai frowned. "You are kidding me."

Rory rolled her eyes at her mother. "This is not a big deal. I mean, this is nothing earth shattering. It's just…"

"He asked you out on a date!" Lorelai shrieked. "That blonde, rich, moron! He obviously doesn't know that you are not over Jess. Poor guy. He should get a clue."

"_You _should get a clue." Rory looked at her like she was the most ridiculous woman in the world. "Sure, the baby is coming in 4 months…and it is Jess'. But, that doesn't mean that I love him..or even like him."

Lorelai smirked, and took a bite of her pizza. "You keep telling yourself that."

"You know? We better stop having these movie nights, we always end up discussing my love life. Movie nights are for movies." Rory pouted.

She shrugged, "We've watched this movie too many times."

Rory gasped. "Jaws? Are you kidding me?"

Lorelai shrugged again. "I'm tired. I just want to go to sleep."

"Then you could have said so. But, please, do not insult Jaws." Rory gave her the control.

"You know what really is scary?"

She wrinkled her forehead, "What?"

Lorelai smirked. "When people tell me that you are slowly turning into me…well, I can believe them now." Rory gave her a dirty look and threw a pillow in her direction, but it ended up hitting nothing. "You suck at throwing. Which you have also inherited from me."

Rory scowled at her, but then smiled. "Okay. So, I'm just going to go to bed and forget you ever existed. Does that sound good to you?"

"Actually, no."

"Well, then, your going to have to call Luke tonight, because I am out of here. I asked Tristin to meet me in my apartment to discuss date plans, anyway."

Lorelai smirked, "That's so cute."

Rory rolled her eyes. "Do you want me to tell Luke to come over?"

She bit her lip, thinking about what a disaster that was going to be. Sure, she slept in the same bed as him every night and they usually say one word to each other every night. But, it hadn't been the same. That was how it was when they were 'fighting.' She definitely didn't want Rory to ask him to come over. Then, he would think that she backed down.

"Actually, sweets, I think I'm just going to call it a night right now. Plus, Luke said he had this…thing later on. I don't want to keep him from it."

Rory looked at her mother strangely. "Mom, what is going on with you two?"

Lorelai shrugged, sighing. "It's nothing."

"Call him. Whatever it is." Rory decided. "I don't like seeing you two not talking."

Lorelai smirked, "Then I'll blind fold you."

Rory stood up, picking up her purse. "This is so not healthy. Please, call him for me." Lorelai sunk deep into the couch. "Stop being stubborn." She smiled, "Love ya. Call you later."

Lorelai gave her a faint 'bye' and she walked out of the house.

She didn't know what to do. She could call Luke, and maybe talk to him calmly or something. Lorelai took a couple of steps toward the phone. Then, a few steps back. She hated being undecided. Luckily, the phone rang before she got a chance to do anything.

"Hello?" Lorelai bit her lip.

"Lorelai." She heard Luke's gruff voice on the other line and suddenly felt butterflies in her stomach.

"Luke…hi." Lorelai sat down on the couch.

"I didn't interrupt your movie night, did I?"

"No. Rory had to leave early about something or other." Lorelai looked down at her hands. "Actually, I was about to call you. Isn't life ironic?"

"Yeah." He sighed, "Uh, listen, I'm calling to let you know that I'm going to be working late here. There's a lot of people, and Jess is out buying something…he wasn't descriptive."

"That's our Jess…"

"Well, I guess I better get going."

"Yea, I guess." Lorelai could feel tears burning in her eyes.

"Bye, Lorelai."

"Wait, Luke!" Lorelai exclaimed, she could feel his presence on the line. "I just wanted to say…I love you."

He was obviously pleasantly surprised. "Ditto."

"Okay, I'll let you go. Bye, Luke." Lorelai smiled to herself.

"Bye, Lorelai."

She heard a dial tone, and turned off the phone. She leaned back into her couch happily, and stared into the picture of her and Luke in the diner that was on the mantle.

XX

Rory sat nervously on her bed. It wasn't fair. It really wasn't. She had two men in her life. Many girls might call that a blessing, but it really wasn't. One was the father of her baby and the other one was an old crush. But, she didn't doubt that going out with Tristin was the right thing. She really didn't. She liked him, and it was obvious that he had matured, which she needed. It was right.

The phone rang, and took her out of her one trance.

"Umm, hi?"

"Rory, darling." Patty stated, smiling. "You beautiful thing. Did you know many pregnant women would just die for you're figure? You can barely tell that your pregnant…except that you are not used to walking with a belly like yours. Which, isn't quite big."

She smirked, "Hi, Ms. Patty. What do you need?"

"Just calling to say hello." Ms. Patty said innocently. "Actually, Babette and I are in quite of a quandary. Is it the blonde or James Dean?"

"Huh?"

"Well, we have a poll going. I voted for Jess, of course, I believe you're soul mates. Plus, with that nice butt he has, who wouldn't?" Patty shrugged. "But, Babette goes for the cute blonde. Rumor has it that you are planning to elope?"

Rory raised an eyebrow. "Don't believe everything you hear. Me and Tristin are not eloping."

"Aww, what a shame. What about Jess?"

"I'm not marrying Jess either."

Patty found these news rather appalling. "Well, then, who are you dating? Because, honestly, darling, you are starting to confuse the heck out of everyone in this town."

Rory sighed, burying her head in her hands. "You're not the only one who's confused." She leaned on her bed frame, realizing something. "Wait, you have a poll going?"

"Oh, honey, you had to be expecting this."

"Well, I wasn't."

Patty shrugged. "Anyways, Jess or the blonde?"

"Tristin and I are planning one measly date. It's not a big deal." Rory bit her lip. "Jess and I are just friends. We just got things settled again, the last thing we need is this stupid poll."

"Well, we're voting in the town meeting. So, you can't really hide from it."

Rory groaned. "Ugh.."

"I'm sorry, honey." Ms. Patty sighed. "Well, gotta go spread the news. You and Tristin…it's adorable!"

Rory's eyes bugged out. "Patty, patty! No, no, you're not spreading anything."

"Bye."

"Ms. Pa--,"

The dial tone interrupted her. She sighed, and closed her cell phone in frustration.

Rory looked up when she heard the door open. She smiled when she saw Tristin walk in and sit on her bed. "What happened to knocking? Are we not doing that anymore?" Rory smirked.

"Well, I thought it would be better not to interrupt your sulking." Tristin shrugged, and gave her a funny look. "Who were you talking to? Seemed to have you all stressed. Is it that Jess guy?"

Rory shook her head, "No. It's just…town stuff."

"I knew I always hated this town." He smirked, leaning forward, but Rory stopped him with her hand.

"You think you're sly, huh? I don't think so. No kissing for now. We need to figure this out." Rory smiled. Tristin rolled his eyes, and scratched the back of his neck.

"Well, at least there's hope of me kissing you some time."

"There is." Rory confirmed, sitting up. "You know, Tristin, this is kind of hard for me. I mean, I do have a lot of stuff happening in my life. I'm not going to lie about it. And it will be hard for us to…date or whatever with all this stuff." She bit her lip, "I guess that's why I haven't dated anyone after that night with Jess…I want to make sure the next guy I date is good enough."

Tristin took some strands of hair out of her eyes. "Rory, I pretty much have been waiting for this forever. That's why it was kind of surreal for me when you said yes."

She smiled, "This isn't getting any easier."

"I know. But, can't we do something about that?"

She sighed, leaning back. "Tristin, if we're going to do this…you have to understand that I'm going to have a baby in four months. This is real. It won't be the same. And…Jess is the father. I don't want him to feel left out because of you or anything like that." She looked straight into his eyes, "Because, you should know, Jess and the baby come first in my life right now."

He nodded. "I do understand, Rory. I just want to be with you right now. We'll figure everything else in time. If this isn't the right time, then I don't know when it is." He smirked, "Because you are one hell of a kisser."

Rory rolled her eyes, "You only kissed me once. I bet my kissing skills have improved from then even more."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh, really? Well, I would really like to see that for myself." He chuckled. Tristin leaned in once again, but this time, Rory leaned in also.

"Let's just take things slow and see where it gets us." Rory whispered. He nodded, and she found a way to get to his lips first. The taste was sweet, and he pulled her closer, body heat keeping them warm.

Before they knew, it wasn't just them in the room. The door opened and it showed a disheveled Jess in the doorway, watching the couple. Rory pulled back from Tristin instantly, and looked back at Jess.

He was obviously upset, but all he did was back out of the door and slam it shut.

Rory looked at Tristin, who was clueless of what was happening. She buried her head in her hands and groaned. This only happened to her. Tristin tried to console her by rubbing her back, but that only made her more upset. He noticed this, and sighed.

"Go after him." Tristin muttered.

Rory looked up, some tears in her eyes. "Thank you." She kissed his forehead, picked up her jacket, and ran out the door.

She ran as fast as she could with her pregnant stomach, but when she finally caught up with Jess, she didn't really know what to say. She could tell that he was heading for the bridge, but she didn't know if to follow since it was starting to rain. He wasn't paying attention to her, even though he knew she was just right next to her.

Rory grabbed him by the arm, making him stop. He pulled is arm away from her forcefully.

"Jess, come on. Please." Then, she realized that this definitely had nothing to do with this. Yes, she had kissed Tristin, but it didn't matter, he did not have any reason to be jealous. But, she didn't walk away. "Talk to me. We need to talk about this." She started walking beside him again. He had his hands in his leather jacket, and was trying to avoid the rain. "It's starting to rain. I'm going to get wet.

She knew that his concern over her would win over the urge to be mad at her. And he did what she expected. He took off his jacket and placed it around her shoulders, then put an arm around her to keep her warm.

"Thank you." She barely whispered, shivering.

Jess looked straight at her for the first time. "You can't do this." That was the last thing he said before gearing her to the bridge. But, instead of sitting out in the rain, he found a big enough tree to keep them dry. They both sat by each other, but Jess wouldn't make eye contact, his arm not around her anymore.

"Talk to me. I want to know what you're thinking." Rory made an effort to get him to look back at her. She took her wet hair out of her face, and watched Jess lean against the trunk of the tree. He was cold, arms crossed.

He looked up. "We'll stay out here until the rain stops, then you can go back to your boyfriend."

Rory sighed, biting her lip. "I know it's not fair, Jess. I know it. Trust me, I do. Everything is happening around us so fast, I can barely see where we're going…"

"You seemed to know exactly what you were doing in there." He mumbled, taking a cigarette out of his back pocket. She watched him fiddle with it as long as she could. Then, she reached into Jess' coat and took out the lighter.

Rory held it out in her palm. "You're going to need this."

He took it out of her hand, the electricity going through their veins when they touched. Which made Rory scared to even be near him. He ignored it, and started sulking in his smoke.

Jess took the cigarette out of his mouth and sighed. "This is probably bad for the baby."

Rory looked at him with sad eyes. "The only person that I'm worried about right now is you. Jess, I don't know what else to say. If you want, I can get down on my knees and beg."

"I'm fine."

Rory said the only thing that she could think of. "I'm really sorry."

"Don't, Rory. Because your not. You like him. And as much it hurts for me to see you with someone else, I'm over you. I am not going to pine for you, because that will probably just get you what you want." Jess said forcefully, throwing the cigarette on the grass, then letting the rain soak it up.

Rory wiped some existing tears from her cheeks. "It's not what I want. I just…I want us both to be happy. Why can't that happen? It always has to be some big drama between us. You storm out, I storm out…"

"I didn't storm out, Rory." Jess sat up straight. "I wasn't going to stand there like an idiot watching both of you kiss. I did what any sane person would do…I walked out. That's it. No drama."

Rory tried to process the whole conversation they were having, it seemed surreal. She watched the rain pour down outside, and all she could think of was running out and catching some water. She always loved going out in the rain. Once, her and Jess walked out into the rain and just walked. Old times. It was not the same then.

"You know, there's a poll going on." Rory smiled, shivering.

He looked at her with those brown eyes, "Who are you voting for?"

Rory sighed, that part wasn't clear.

A/N: I know some people are confused to whether this is a Literati or not. IT IS A LITERATI! Lol. Okay, I just wanted to get that clear so no one asks me anymore. I refuse to do any other pairing. And, yes, there may be some Trory parts in this story, but don't you worry kiddies. Alright, you know what to do:

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	8. Blame it on Hormones and Carnivals

Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls. God, I am tired of saying this. So, if you don't get the point, then read the chapters before.

A/N: Hope you enjoy this lovely little chapter…

"Names."

"I am seriously no good at names. And I'm not even lying like I did when you asked me about the whole boy or girl issue."

"I don't believe you. I know you secretly want a little boy to teach baseball to…or something."

"Remember, I don't do sports."

"Right." She smirked, "It's the whole James Dean thing and everything…or James Bond? Because, sure, he might do the whole Mission Impossible antic but I'm sure he would have never participated in High School Volleyball."

"I'm sorry, weren't we talking about names?"

"Oh. Right."

Rory nodded taking a noodle out of the container. Movie nights were usually with her mother, but she said she and Luke had just gotten on good grounds and she wanted some good 'homemade loving' as she called it. Tristin was out of town, so there was only alternative. Jess. Which didn't look that bad to her actually.

"Nothing cutesy." Rory pointed a chopstick at him and he nodded. "Like…Uh, Miffy? Or Muffet? I don't know how that goes."

Jess chuckled, "No need to go on. I get what your saying."

"Sorry, it's just I hate it when people name kids like their part of the Barney group."

"We will definitely stay out of that category."

Jess took a bite out of his hamburger, and then set it down next to the pizza. They had ordered three food groups (well, for them): Pizza, Hamburger, and then of course Chinese. Plus, some tootsie rolls with tomato sauce that Rory was craving for.

They both reached for the last slice of pizza, but Jess refrained and let the lady take it.

"Nice of you." She took a huge bite out of it. "Hmm…they could make this spicy and then they would definitely make way more money. But, Pete refuses to put anything that might make Taylor shut his place down."

"How will some hot sauce get Taylor mad?"

"Apparently some people are allergic." She shrugged, "I would simply give people the option. Taylor's a freak, though."

"Talking about Taylor…what about the town meeting?"

Rory took a sip of her iced tea and sighed. "I don't know. Every time I think about it just stresses me out. I mean, it's just going to upset- Uh, never mind."

Jess wrinkled his forehead. "What?"

"Nothing. I just kept thinking this was movie night…with mom. We usually discuss the whole boy problem issues."

"You can tell me if you want."

Rory almost laughed out loud. Seriously, how hilarious would it be to see her telling her boy problems to Jess? Especially when her problems included Jess. Which, she did not want him to know that there _was_ a problem.

She snorted, "I don't think that would work…since, uh, the problems include you."

He seemed interested in this. "Oh really? We're having problems?"

"No."

"Then?" He inquired, asking her to fill in the blank. And he could tell that she was getting jittery, the way she does when she's about to stutter. He could also tell because she had her hand on her stomach. "You know what? Save it for girl time with Lorelai. She'll want to hear about it." He dropped it.

Rory smiled. That genuine smile that she has when she's really happy or she wants to lean in and give him a hug. Which, she knew she couldn't do. Because, of course, they were both choosing to keep things awkward. Nice, huh?

"Thank you." She smiled. But, then when she realized everything that was happening, she looked down. "Uh, Jess, can I ask you something?"

Jess leaned back in his chair. "Yeah."

"Do you—," Rory tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, frustrated. "Do you want to get out of here?"

He looked taken back by this. "Huh?"

"Go out and do something, I mean."

His confusion surely turned into a smirk. "Like what?"

"There's a carnival at the town square…I'm sure that it will be lame and everything. Because, of course, that's why we weren't going to go. But, I—I guess that it will be fun if you come. And I know you don't support these kinds of things…but, I really would like it if you would go. With me, I mean. If you wanted to." She rambled like an idiot.

Jess smiled, that's the Rory he loved. Liked, he meant. "Let's go."

"Really," Her eyes lit up. "I mean, okay, that's cool." She tried to play it cool. He chuckled, and stood up. She bit her lip, as she put on her jacket. This was nice.

XX

Luke shuffled down the stairs. By going so fast, he didn't notice the huge pile of clothes at the bottom of the stairs. He slipped on an underwear and fell right on his butt. The doorbell kept on ringing.

"_Luke! Hurry up!"_ Lorelai called from the bedroom. She could never depend with Luke to get the door without tripping on things.

"I'm going! Jeez. This place is a pigsty. I fell again!" He yelled, getting up.

"_Cry baby! Now, get the door before they leave."_

"That seems like a better option right now."

"_Do you want to be my dirty diner man or not?"_

Luke grumbled something about his stupid hormones, and made his way to the door. He stubbed his toe on a piggy bank, but then ignored it and opened the door with force. And, boy, was he surprised to see that it wasn't Babette. Oh no, Babette was not at the door. Maybe something worse. No. It was clear. It _was_ something worse.

XX

As if she thought that her life couldn't get more complicated, well, not really complicated but frustrating, nail biting, and idiotic. Those were her words. She wasn't really sure about everyone else's point of view, but she didn't worry, everyone would soon pitch in at the town meeting next week.

They were just walking around the carnival aimlessly. Honest. Nothing had really happened, they hadn't been there long and she couldn't wait to get the awkwardness over with. They were talking normally and nothing had deeply scarred them yet. Until, that is, a surprise guest showed up in front of them. Someone she wasn't expecting.

Dean and Lindsay Forrester.

Fake a smile?

Shake his or her hand?

Wave?

Those were her options.

She chose wave and smile. That seemed to be the best option at that moment. Jess seemed kind of pissed off that she grabbed his hand and dragged him over to them, but it was okay. She guessed.

"Hi…" Rory smiled and hugged Lindsay. Jess and Dean seemed a little taken back by this, but it was their guess that she was hormonal or on crack or something. "It's good to see you."

Lindsay nodded, "Yeah."

Dean looked at Rory, then at Lindsay, and lastly at Jess. He gave him a dirty look. Jess returned it, of course. Dean smiled at Rory and looked down at her belly. "You look good," He continued, "I heard that you're back in the dating scene…Tristin Dugrey?"

He said his name with disgust.

Rory bit her lip nervously, "Actually, yea. He's back in town and we just, um, kind of got together. I mean, not got together, got together…but, just, planned one measly date…then went on it. The date, I mean…"

Jess put his hand over her mouth. "Shut up, will you?" He whispered to her, so only she could hear. She nodded, and forcefully took his hand off of her mouth.

Dean looked at them strangely. "Uh, so what are you doing here? This isn't exactly your place to hang out at." He looked at Jess when he said this.

He shrugged, "Huh."

Monosyllabic answer. Not really an answer following the question. But, whatever. Better than nothing.

Then, Lindsay jumped in. "So, we were thinking about hitting the hot dog stand. Do you want to join us?" Lindsay smiled, "I'm really starving." She added.

"Well, we already ate…but, I think if you throw in a trip to the snow cone machine then we will be glad to. Right, Jess?" Rory narrowed her eyes at him.

"Right." Jess mumbled, then looking down at his feet, he was kicking the dirt on the ground and you could see his breath a little since it was starting to get colder.

"Let's go." Lindsay said peppily.

XX

Lorelai trotted downstairs and looked for her boyfriend. She was expecting anything but what she was about to see. Maybe on another planet, but certainly not there. She walked down the stairs slowly. "Luke, I swear to god, you made me come down in my dirtiest outfit. Do you think this is right?"

She yelled this through out the house.

Since she didn't get a response, she simply walked faster until she stumbled into the hallway after tripping over a U2 T-shirt. Christopher Hayden was the last person in the world that she would expect to see. Not only that, but he had baby Gigi in his arms.

"Oh." Was all that she could muster up to say when she saw them both standing in the doorway. "Chris. What are you doing here?"

XX

"Uh, guys, do you mind if I go over to talk to Lane and Zach? I just need to tell her something." Rory said quickly to the group. They all nodded, although Jess didn't really do anything but light a cigarette. "Uhm, ok." She cleared her throat as a sign to Jess, but it seemed like he wasn't interested in anything else but the floor.

As annoying as Jess was being at that moment, she couldn't blame him. Dean and Lindsay had definitely never been his favorite people. And he had made it clear to her before that he had no interest to hang out with them. Ever. Especially on the night that was supposed to be fun for Rory and Jess. Forget that.

Rory pulled herself away from the others and walked over to Lane and Zach who were apparently getting ready for a gig. A gig at a Stars Hollow carnival?

"Hey!" Rory greeted her friend, her hands in her pocket because her fingers were starting to get numb from the cold. Lane smiled and hugged her friend. "Um, I saw you and came over. Did you see us?"

Lane raised an eyebrow at the threesome glaring at them from the snow cone stand. "Did I just see Dean and Jess?"

"I'm sorry, but don't I recall this conversation?" Rory laughed, teasing her friend.

"Ah, the Winter Carnival of 2003. The good old days."

Rory gave her a knowing look. "Dave. Jess."

Her friend looked like she had the wind knocked out of her. Rory recognized that feeling. The weird one you get when someone mentions something that you would rather have erased than brought up. The feeling of pure uncomfortable-ness when you just want to try and bear it. "Dave."

Rory frowned and put an arm around her. She changed the subject quickly. "What about Dean and Jess? Come on, woman, give me some answers. I'm dying here."

Lane's face brightened up at the opportunity of helping her friend. "Well, you can give me the details later…we go on in five."

"Wow, Lane Kim playing at a carnival..Stars Hollow none of the less. What's happening to you?" Rory teased.

"I'm broke." She laughed, "Anyways, I had an idea yesterday."

"Yeah?"

"Well, I thought of a baby shower."

Rory raised an eyebrow, "You thought of something for the baby? I mean, for me _and _the baby?" Rory smiled, "Lane, wow."

"It's no big deal. It's only your hormones, I guess," Lane gave her a genuine smile. "Anyways, it wouldn't be so much of a baby shower…but a baby dinner. Like something formal where we can invite everyone we know and we can celebrate the new baby Gilmore-Mariano." She watched Rory's reaction, "What do you think?"

"I think it's great, Lane. I would love it."

Lane shrugged, "Yeah, I thought you would. Plus, the bright side is that no cheesy games or anything. Just right to the point. Cheers to the new baby, some nice dessert, and then it's buh-bye to everyone. Saves up time."

"I will definitely talk to Jess."

"Let's not forget Tristin. Ah, the men in your life." Lane mocked, patting her on the back. Rory gave her a smile.

Before she could respond, Taylor's voice came on the loud speaker:

"_Everyone, gather around. Hep Alien is about to begin…" _Then added, _"Tommy, get off the grass!" _He paused, "_We worked very hard to keep our grass nice and clean. Oh yes, and anyone who wants to sign up for the poll of Rory's Choice please swing by at Doose's."_

Rory groaned. "God. Are they just trying to shove it in my face? Can't they see I've already made a decision?"

"Sure you have." Lane said unconvincingly. "Well, gotta go."

Rory stood there and watched her friend go. Her cell phone ringing barely gave her time to think about what she had said. She took it out of her pocket and looked at the caller ID.

_Tristin's Cell_

Then, a voice called her name. It was Jess.

"Rory, let's get a move on. Lindsay and Dean already left, so I think we can go somewhere else for the rest of the night." Jess yelled over the loud music, running up to her.

Rory nodded, "Okay. Just one sec."

She pressed END on her cell phone and flipped it close. She put it safely in her pocket and followed Jess out of the town square, barely thinking of anything else but what Lane had said.

XX

Chris looked raging mad when Lorelai asked him this question. "I'm sorry, but I just got a call from Emily Gilmore…apparently I'm going to be a grandfather?"

Lorelai bit her lip, "Congratulations?"

A/N: Okay, so, I have slowly and painfully began to remember once again that 1) Dean is a boring character and the only thing you can do to actually bear to write him is make him and Jess not get along. 2) Lindsay is just as boring…and 3) Dean's hair is floppy and shaped like a bowl. Okay. I just wanted to get that out of my system. lol.

Anyways, I want to apologize about the ending…because, yes, it is a cliffhanger. And I hate reading those too. I hope you liked it though. And, also, tell me what you think about my form of writing this chapter. It was kind of new…but, I liked doing it.

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	9. It's Never What We Want

A/N: Thanks for the reviews…WARNING: Cliffhanger at the end of the chapter! Oh, I love torturing your poor souls. Lol. But, I do apologize for the fact that you will have to give me at least 12 reviews for this chapter before I update. I'm not feeling enough love for these chapters. And I've been rather good with the updating. Okay, so, go on and read. And then REVIEW

It was raining. And some people might say that that was a good enough reason for Rory to be down. But, she didn't take it that way. Of course, people always said that you're always down when it's raining…but, Rory never really understood it. Just because it was raining did not mean that everyone in the world had to be in a bad mood. She should know, Tristin was as happy as anyone could be. But, he was the only one.

Lorelai and her father were _talking _downstairs. Rory and Jess had just come home from the carnival, and then Luke had called them urgently, that her mother was having some sort of a breakdown…and then she heard it. Her father was there. The screaming, the yelling. She could hear it in the background.

Then, they ran over there, and were hushed upstairs to her mother's bedroom so they didn't have to see the horribleness. Although, Rory argued that she was an adult. No one really listened to her. So, Jess tried to calm her down and practically pulled her up the stairs….and that's when Tristin called. He called and she couldn't hang up on him. Jess was looking over her shoulder.

They talked about how they were, and Rory mentioned something about her father and Jess…didn't really get into the details. And he told her that he was just with his buddies. Of course, there was an uncomfortable pause, so, Rory was forced to tell him the baby shower idea. Which helped some. Then, click, the call was over.

She rested her head on the windowsill, "I don't understand what's taking them so long. I mean, who can talk for so long? Not me. Plus, what could they possibly have to talk about? Ugh." She ranted.

Jess looked up from the book he had found. Lorelai used it to even the bed's legs out. "I'm sure their just…catching up."

"Uh-huh."

He smirked, "No. I'm serious. Maybe their getting down and talking about what they have been up to. Luke can tell him every single detail about the great works of a diner, and then Gigi can go 'Gaga' and everyone will be all happy again."

Rory raised an eyebrow, "Gaga?"

"Hey, I've heard babies say it. Part of their vocabulary." He shrugged.

"Wow, I sure made the wrong choice about the whole 'who's going to be the father of my baby.' I should have looked what was behind door number two. Darn." Rory mocked.

He set his eyes back on the book. "Laugh all you like, but let's see what great hair the baby will have…then you will so regret this."

"_Chris, I couldn't stop her from doing this! According to you, I spent all my time with my daughter…but, I don't. She has a life and if she wants to do this then she can."_

"_Don't tell me that you couldn't stop this."_

"_Please, Christopher. We managed to do a little damage ourselves. Or wait…don't you remember that?"_

"_It's different!"_

"_Really, how?"_

Silence.

Then, Lorelai's voice went to a soft tone.

"_Chris, as much as you would like to believe that Rory is still your little girl…she isn't. I had to face that a long time ago. Now, it's your turn. Nobody could have prevented this…"_

Jess looked up once again to see Rory's expression. She was closing the door, so, they wouldn't have to hear anything else, her hand on her stomach. He sighed, putting down the book. "You know, reading about ovens isn't as luxurious as it seems…." He tried to lighten the mood.

Rory gave him a fake smile. "I knew this would come, Jess. Don't worry about it. Go back to being obnoxious, monosyllabic you. I'm fine." She sat at the edge of the bed and twiddled her thumbs.

"Huh." He joked, but it didn't get an amused expression from her. "Rory, jus--,"

The door creaked open and interrupted them. A red-faced Lorelai was standing on the other side. Her eyes were filled with tears, and all Rory could do was go to her and hug her. Rory squeezed her tight, "Everything's going to be fine."

Lorelai was hysterical. "No, it's not. Luke walked out, and then Chris stormed out. I tried to keep myself calm, really. It's just…how can everything be so messed up right now?" She cried.

"Mom, you did your best." She pulled away, "But, I really think that I want to go talk to him. It's my fight. And then later you can tell me what happened to Luke, k?"

Lorelai shook her head. "Rory, I don't think that Chris will be in such a good moo--,"

"Please let me do this." She insisted.

Jess put his first input to the conversation. "I could always go with you. I'm sure he'll have some things to say to me. Why should I wait until we meet unexpectedly?"

She shook her head, "Do you have a death wish?"

Lorelai looked at Jess, then at Rory. "Rory, let him go. You stay here with me. You're the one who's pregnant…and we don't want him to say something that he might regret later. Plus, there has to be a first time for the meet of the two most stubborn men in the universe…"

"I agree." Jess nodded.

Rory sighed, sitting down on the bed again. "Fine. But, please, come back unscarred."

"I'll try my best."

XX

Where would a furious dad be?

Jess had never actually looked for dads…so, he barely knew the feeling. The only time he had actually talked to his father was when he lived in California…and usually the conversations were awkward and short. He didn't feel at home, he felt restless. And that was the moment where he actually realized that the stupid town of Stars Hollow was as much as a home as he was going to get. Like it or not.

He walked through the streets in a quick pace, not wanting to be stopped for any more questioning about his new fatherhood…or about the whole blonde, rich, moron guy.

Too late.

He was noticing the book fair that was supposed to open next week, and then suddenly, BAM, he bumped into someone. Now, he would have been fine with this, if it wasn't the someone he couldn't stand. And wouldn't even talk to even if he was strapped down to a chair and being threatened for his life.

Take a wild guess? Dean Floppy-haired Forrester.

Seemed like they seemed to be seeing a lot of each other lately.

"Oh, sorry." Dean mumbled, picking up the grocery bag he had dropped. He had noticed that Jess was in front of him, but couldn't help being polite. It was just in his nature. "Wasn't watching where I was--,"

"No, you weren't." Jess interrupted him cockily.

Dean stood up and did the whole 'I'm bigger than you and I can beat you up in a single heartbeat if I wanted to, but I'm too nice, so that'll never happen…unless you mess with Rory, who I am still in love with, but will never date because I'm not good enough, but neither are you thing.' (A/N: LOL! I'm sorry, I just had to.) "As I remember, you weren't quite looking yourself."

Jess shrugged, and tried to shuffle pass him, but on purpose knocked into him a little.

Dean raised an eyebrow at him, "What's your problem, man? You have everything you could ever want and need. You have Rory wrapped around your finger, whatever you say she will do, even if you asked her to break up with Tristin. Your going to have a baby with the most amazing woman in the world, and you are taking it all for granted." He shook his head in disgust, "You have the girl, Jess. And don't you even try to deny it."

He walked away angrily and left Jess standing in the middle of the sidewalk.

Jess officially needed a smoke.

XX

Knock. Knock.

Lorelai was sleeping.

Rory was sitting. Waiting.

The only person that she could think of could be at the door, was Jess. Her eyes immediately lit up and she ran downstairs. She yanked the door opened, and smiled.

"Are you okay?" She practically yelled. Then, made a slightly disappointed noise when she noticed it was Tristin. "Oh, hi. Come in. I thought that you were someone else."

He smirked, "I couldn't help but hear some disappointment in that tone, Mary. Are you not glad to see me?"

She shook her head. "Of course I'm glad to see you." She placed a light kiss on his lips. "It's just…I have a lot of things going on with my dad and Jess. But, please, come in. I could use the company. Mom's asleep."

Tristin nodded. "Anything for my Mary."

"For the last time, it's Rory." She teased, opening the door so he could go in.

XX

Jess walked up to the receptionist table at the Dragonfly Inn. He guessed that Chris would be staying there. If not to help Lorelai's business then because there were no other Inn's in town. Michel wasn't there, so, he just walked behind the desk, and looked at the book that held all of the people that were staying at the Inn. He looked under H. There it was.

Hayden, Christopher

Room 7

Asking for directions from one of the maids, he made his way up to Rory's father's room. He knocked softly, taking the hair out of his eyes, maybe subconsciously trying to look sincere. Which, he was trying to be all the time. Or nice. Whichever it was.

An older man, about Lorelai's age opened the door before he had a chance to think over what the hell he was going to say to this man.

"Hello?" The man looked at him suspiciously. "Who are you and what are you doing at my doorstep…or hotelstep if that's more appropriate."

"Oh, nothing about this visit will be appropriate."

The man wrinkled his forehead in confusion. "Okay, what are you talking about?"

Jess stuck out his hand. "Jess Mariano. Your future-grandchild's father. Can I come in?"

XX

"Rory, I was looking for my blue-pant suit, and I can't find it. Do you know where it might b--," Lorelai stopped dead in her tracks when she reached downstairs. Rory and Tristin were sitting on the couch. Normally, she would have absolutely no problem with this, but the circumstances were kind of different.

She had been just finished taking a bath and only had a tiny towel on.

"Oh god." Lorelai's cheeks turned bright red.

Rory's eyes bugged out, and then suddenly put her hand over Tristin's eyes. "Uh, mom, what are you doing down here…like that? I mean, clothes are an option in this case, right?"

She nervously held on to her towel, to make sure it didn't slip. "I told you. Couldn't find…blue suit? I—Do you have it?"

Rory shook her head, "You slept over my place the night that you came home with the blue suit. I'm washing it. Sorry."

Lorelai nodded, sighing. "I just really needed it to look all ab-fab for my apology to Luke. I mean, I'm not really sure of what I'm sorry for. But, I guess I should try. The whole Christopher fight wasn't fair. I should have talked to Luke first or something."

"What about the brown jacket and the nice floppy skirt?"

Lorelai's eyes glowed, "Wow, beautiful and smart."

"Uh, can I remind you both that I am slowly forgetting what light ever looked like?" Tristin mumbled.

Lorelai jumped, remembering. "Right…towel lady is going now." She ran up the stairs, and into her bedroom.

Rory took her hand off from Tristin's eyes and sighed.

"Why is something always happening with my mother and Luke? I feel like we're in a huge ferris wheel that's broken and the fixing guy is never going to get here. So, we'll never stop going 'round and 'round." She leaned back against the couch and turned her head to look at Tristin. "Is all of this drama going to scare you away?"

Tristin smirked, "Hey, if your mother couldn't scare me away…then, I think that I'm sticking around for a while." She gave him a smile. "Rory, why have you been avoiding my calls?"

Rory frowned, "I have not been avoiding your calls. I've just…been busy. Nothing else."

"Can we be truthful for a second?"

Rory looked down. "I don't know what's wrong with me." When she looked up, he could see that she had a few tears in her eyes. "I'm fat and moody. And…I mean, I'm possibly at the least attractive phase of my life that I am ever going to be at. But, you still like me. And I can't help but take it for granted. It's not like I don't know what I'm doing…"

"Just tell me what's wrong."

Rory tried to calm herself down. "I just find myself trying to build a wall around me…trying to keep myself from getting hurt anymore. Trying to keep the baby and me safe. I just…can't help but try to picture what it would be like…if Jess and I were together. And I know that it's horrible. But, it's true. And all I know is that this baby definitely isn't going to have a natural existence with two father figures. What if there was only one? Its just things that a single mother has to wonder for the sake of her child."

Tristin tried to keep his calm. "Do you still love Jess?"

Rory looked around her, not meeting his eyes. She looked outside and saw the rain falling. Jess wasn't coming. And right in front of her was this wonderful man who she was attracted to, who was the best person she could think of that could help her. Other than Jess. Her eyes met his again. "No." Her answer was firm and determined. Too bad it wasn't what the weird feeling in his stomach was.

"Then what does it matter? I'm sure your head is going miles a minute, and as long as your completely with me. Then, I don't care what your wondering or thinking." He bit his lip, "Trying to make that sound the least selfish macho jerk-ish."

Rory wiped the tears off her cheeks. "It works."

"Okay, I know your having a moment and everything. But, I really have to get through here. Plus, a word of luck please?" Lorelai zoomed through the living room and placed a kiss on her daughter's forehead. "Aww. Tristin, you take care of my baby while I'm gone. Don't stay too late. Call me if Jess comes home. Bye!"

"Good luck!" Rory called after her, but she had practically already ran out the door. She turned to Tristin with a smirk, "Talk about desperate."

XX

"If you think I'm going to let you in then your very wrong."

Jess flinched, "Uh, Mr. Hayden, please, Rory asked me to come here and talk to you. Would you deny your daughter? Even if you are really mad at her, it doesn't matter; we should be able to have a normal conversation. Don't you think?"

"I don't think that Rory should have anything to do with you. So, no, I don't think I could bare talking about anything that has to do with her…and you. Especially when I had a fight with Lorelai about this…if I didn't listen to her then there is no hope. I am not one for the talking." Jess half expected for smoke to blow out of his ears. "So, goodbye. And, please, don't come back." With that, he shut the door with force and left Jess out in the hallway.

Jess rolled his eyes and knocked long and hard. No answer, so, he knocked as hard as he could, and as annoyingly as he could. He was expecting to see an annoyed Chris at the door, but instead, he found a tiny toddler sitting in front of him.

Jess raised an eyebrow, "Gigi?"

She looked up at him with her big brown eyes and smiled. She had little locks of blonde hair on her head and a small pink bow. "Ahutsa." She spit all over her clothes.

"Where is your father? And how did you open the door?"

Of course, the small child did not know how to talk, therefore, didn't answer him. He looked inside the room, and didn't see Chris anywhere. He looked down at the baby, who was now crawling to his foot and putting his shoelaces in her mouth and biting down on it. "Oh no, that's bad. Shoelaces are not edible. Next time, go for the pants. Way less dirty and infected." He stopped, "Okay, your not understanding anything I am saying right now."

She wrinkled her forehead and started to let out long wails. She wouldn't stop crying. "No dada." She sobbed, and put out her bottom lip. Jess started panicking.

"Eh, no, stop it. Gigi. Please."

Then, the child did a surprising thing. She stuck out her tiny arms, "Me go uppy." She sobbed, not stopping. Jess looked around the hallway, and didn't see anyone, so he bent down and took her in his arms. He bounced up and down trying to get the child to stop crying. Her crying started lowering slowly, and she soon buried her head in Jess' shoulder. "Toft." She sniffled, looking up at him.

"Yes, this is soft." Jess smiled. "Now, can you tell me where your daddy?"

She didn't seem to understand, so she just simply closed her eyes and started breathing lightly while she slept. He kept on bouncing up and down, slowly walking into the room and closing the door softly so she wouldn't wake up. Then, he simply put her down in the yellow crib next to the big bed and gently put her down. He saw a small blanket that would barely cover up his feet, and placed it on top of the sleeping baby. "There you are." He whispered, sitting on the bed next to her.

The door of the bathroom creaked open, so he turned his head. He saw Chris walk into the room with a sly expression on his face. "Huh. You passed. I'm impressed, really." Chris smirked.

Jess nodded. "I should have known. I mean, Gigi's smart, but come on. The opening of the door?" He chuckled, "Why'd you even do that? I mean, it's not really hard to pick up a baby and rock her to sleep. I'm pretty sure that even a high school freshman can do a better job than me."

Chris looked at him oddly. "Jess, it's not as easy as you make it seem. I mean, sure, it's easy when it's for five minutes…but, you really have to click with your child. Understand her or him and take care of the baby as well as you can." He caught himself, "Sorry. Don't mean to sound like Doctor Phil."

He smirked, "That's okay." Jess shrugged. "And if it makes you feel any better, Gigi is an easy girl to get along with. I would have totally gotten an F if it was a three year old."

"Makes me slightly happier."

"Good." He nodded, "So, can I explain myself now that I have passed?"

"Go ahead."

XX

Lorelai stopped straight in front of the diner window, she saw Luke quietly adjusting his tiny TV so the screen would be clearer. She turned her head to see what he was watching, but the blurry image barely let her see a thing. She smiled at her boyfriend and tried knocking softly on the diner door. The door wobbled, and the bell on top of the door jingled.

Luke, without looking away from his TV, just simply yelled. "We're e closed! Go away or I'll make you go away!"

Lorelai knocked again, fear rushing through her body that maybe he would just close the door on her and tell her to take a hike. She hugged her jacket close to her, "Luke, it's me." She said in a trembling voice. "Open up please."

She heard Luke drop the antenna that he was trying to fix and look at her through the window. Then, looked down when she caught him looking straight at her. He cleaned off his hands with his jeans, the dust leaving his hands. He opened the door slowly, letting her enter the diner.

She smiled at him and sighed, "Luke. Can we please sit down and talk for a while? I mean, things haven't been going so well lately. With the fight before, and now the whole Chris thing." Lorelai fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. "I want to talk about everything before we get to resent each other."

Luke pulled a chair out for her and then sat at the one next to it. "Okay, go, get things out in the open. What do you want to tell me?"

Lorelai could sense the hostility coming from his voice. She frowned. "Luke, I'm not hiding anything. And I don't need to tell you anything. I was just wondering if you had a problem with Chris, for god's sake. Which I'm starting to believe that you do."

Luke groaned. "Look, Lorelai, I didn't mean that to sound cocky or irritating, but I am just not in the best of moods."

Lorelai looked at her boyfriend intensely. "Do you…Do you want me to go?"

"That's okay. You're here. We can talk."

"Are you sure, Luke? Because I kind of just came out of the blue and pushed you to talk. It's not going to do us any good if it's only me forcing you to talk, and that might be how some people do it, but I don't think I'll go for that."

"Lorelai," He stopped her from going on, "Let me talk and shut up." He smirked, and watched the corner of her lips pull up into a broad smile. She sat up, tucking her hair behind her ears as if it was going to help her listen. "When we started…this, I knew Chris had been in your past. I knew it from the beginning. But, I didn't take a clue. I didn't think that he would keep showing up…"

Lorelai frowned, "Luke, Chris is a part of Rory's life. Not mine."

He sighed. "That might be, but, if you don't very well remember, Rory's life _is _your life. And whatever affects her affects you…and frankly, whatever affects you affects me. It's like a huge chain. And guess what happens there? Chris is suddenly in my life. That just…frustrates me."

"I have no feelings for Chris, Luke. None at all. And just because he might show up once in a while, with a scary looking mask on, it doesn't mean that our world has to shift in any way."

Luke narrowed his eyes on her. "Then how come it does?"

"It's not my fault. It's not. I never expected any of this when I hopped in the sack with Chris. It was not in the game plan that Chris was going to be this ghost that will come back to haunt me and scare anyone who I love away. I did not sign up for that." She shrugged, wiping her eyes. "And for one thing: I didn't think you of all people would run away from a ghosty past."

They stared at each other for a couple of minutes, Lorelai didn't really know how much it had been for. All she knew was that the ticking of a clock was not going to keep her from getting this straight.

Luke suddenly jumped up, breaking the eye contact. "Dammit. You know what? I love you. But, I'm sorry, I just can't wait anymore." Lorelai had a confused expression on her face as he ran behind the counter and brought out a small ring with a diamond placed in the middle. "I was going to do this all nice and formal. A dinner and everything…but this is all I have for right now."

He took adjusted his baseball hat. "Marry me."


	10. Just Remember

Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls..

A/N: Okay, let me just start out with the fact that whoever didn't review doesn't deserve this, I just thought it was kind of cruel for the people who _did _ review to have a cliffhanger as an ending. And it's really embarrassing that I can't even get 12 reviews, it really is. Because I know you're all out there reading, but not reviewing. And, like I said, you don't deserve these chapters. Because I work hard for this story, and I think out everything just to give you a good chapter. And you can't even give me one measly review?

I'm going to keep on going with this story, for the people who do review regularly to tell me that their reading. And if you hate it, just tell me. Because I would like to improve. But, not saying anything? It's just not fair. Well, there's nothing more I can say. Just know I feel this way. It sucks for me.

I'm not going to even tell you to review anymore, do it if you want.

----

She ran a hand through her fat stomach, "Maybe inviting Kirk isn't such a good idea. I mean, he did take a picture of the bride cheating on her husband at the Stalbick's wedding. But, it _would _be funny to see Grandma's face when we tell her Kirk is coming to the baby dinner."

They had grown costumed to calling it the 'baby dinner' instead of the 'baby shower.' Because it would probably be more like a baby dinner than shower.

"Hey, that's always a plus." Lorelai nodded, clicking her pen over and over again, distracted.

Rory wrote it down, "Okay, but I'll have to run it by Jess and Tristin first. Well, at least Jess. He knows Kirk way more than Tristin will ever know."

"You do that." She said in a mundane voice.

Rory raised an eyebrow at her mother. "Well, I might invite Barney to come and perform…or maybe serve umbrellas for appetizers."

"Sounds good."

She frowned and took the pen out of her mother's hands.

"Hey!" Lorelai protested.

"Your not paying attention to me, mom. Is it so hard for me to keep you from mourning for five seconds so you can help me plan my baby shower? For your grandchild?" She added.

Lorelai shook her head. "It's not too much…I'm sorry. It's just, I've been distracted with…"

Rory gave her a sorry smile. "I know. I shouldn't have made you come here. God, I'm such an idiot. It was too soon to even make you look at the stupid diner building…"

"No, no." Lorelai gave her a fake smile. "It was really nice of Luke to let you keep the apartment. I just have to be a little more careful of where I go, I don't know where he's staying now."

She nodded, "And how are you dealing with_ that_?"

"Oh, I'm just peachy…" She said sarcastically. "You know, been keeping busy. He's been over a lot, actually. Move stuff from the house to wherever he's living now…it just sucks."

"Well, you did say no." Rory pointed out.

"I had to."

"No you didn't. You could have said yes, and right now you would be doing wedding invitations instead of thinking of what could have been."

She shrugged. "Rory, you can't talk about what you don't know. So, just leave it alone."

"But, you won't tell me what happened. How am I supposed to know why you ran?"

"I didn't run! I—Oh my god, I am not going to discuss this with you. Period. Now, let's go back to talking about the shower." She buried her head into her hands, "What about the food?"

Rory looked at her mother angrily. "Sookie's making mini-pizzas. We can still have it at the diner, or is that forbidden too?"

"I don't know…do what you want."

Her shoulder's dropped. "Should I invite Luke?"

Lorelai fixated her eyes on the ground. "You can do what you want with that too. I—I don't want to be included with that decision either."

Rory nodded, biting her lip. "I won't invite him."

Her mother looked up at her.

"I don't want him to be there if it's uncomfortable for the both of you. I want this to be fun, and it's not going to be fun with him hanging around…"

Lorelai felt guilt wash over her body. "Please don't do this for me, Rory. I want you to invite who you want."

"Okay, I will."

XX

"I would have never thought…"

"Yeah, I know, and the strangest thing is that she won't say a word about it at all. It's like if you touch that subject, you get executed."

"Well, Luke might be touchy about it…but he has never gotten to the killing level." Jess smirked, taking a large bite out of his hamburger, Rory hit him playfully on the arm.

She groaned, "This is not kidding stuff. They're both miserable, and I feel like they're going to go all _Misery _on each other." He chuckled.

"Do you know why she said no?" He asked, leaning back.

"I wish," She sighed, "but she wouldn't even tell me why they broke up. I had to annoy it out of her to even get that information."

"Sucks."

She smirked, "I'm glad you share my feelings…"

"Why?" He asked cautiously.

"Because…I thought that we could play matchmakers at the dinner?"

"Rory, no way. Forget about it. First of all, they want us to know nothing about what is happening with them. Luke hasn't even yelled at me for the last week. Do you know what that is? They don't want us to get involved."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, fine. And I was all looking forward to playing spies with you."

"Hey, why didn't you suggest this to Tristin?"

"Well, he just doesn't know Luke and my mom as well as you do. Plus, he's already busy with school…and we live in the same town. More spying possibilities." She said uneasily.

Jess nodded smirking. "Do you want to know a reason why you couldn't possibly be a good spy?"

"Why?"

"Because you have to pee every five minutes."

Rory scowled and threw a fry at him. He just laughed.

XX

Lorelai handled the bags in her hands without care, she didn't really care what happened to her groceries. Luke was inside and she had to get out of there fast. She had already had a peek at him when she was buying her super coco puffs, which were a new recipe that Kirk made his mother's kitchen.

Not looking where she was going, she bumped into a familiar person.

"Wow, this has been happening a lot lately. We should get you a map or something…" Chris smirked, kneeling and helping her with the groceries.

Lorelai just stood there. "Hello Chris, I'm kind of in a hurry, so--,"

He handled her the toilet paper that had fallen. "You know ever since I moved here you've been distant. Are you mad at me?"

"Believe it or not, this has nothing to do with you." Lorelai snapped.

"What's with the 'tude?"

Lorelai looked down, embarrassed. But, mostly feeling some tears in her eyes. "Luke was in there."

"Oh." He sighed, pausing. "Do you want to go out to lunch?"

She looked up, surprised. "What? Seriously?" She sniffled.

"Let me take you out to lunch." Chris smiled, "A sympathy lunch?"

Lorelai's eyes twinkled. "I'm glad someone has some compassion. Rory only bought me a brownie."

"Sympathy, not pity."

"Same thing."

Chris rolled his eyes, "Please."

"Alright, but now it's a pity lunch for _you._ I'm doing this for you, not me."

He smirked, "Oh, you so want free food."

XX

"Lunch with Jess?"

"Yeah…" She frowned, "Lunch with dad?"

"Yes."

"Problem with my lunch?"

"Nope."

"Problem with mine?"

"Maybe." Rory bit her lip nervously, her eyes roamed all around the room. Lorelai looked at her hands. "Your not…I mean, you're not trying to maybe replace dad with Luke, are you? Because that wouldn't be right. And I don't know anything about the break-up since you didn't tell me, so, I don't exactly know if you broke up because you were madly in love with dad."

"I wasn't, and I'm not. Actually, the opposite. We just talked about…Luke and me. It's wasn't very progressive."

Rory's face filled with sadness. "So, you told dad about you and Luke, but you couldn't tell me?"

"Rory, can we not get into this? I already told you that I didn't want to talk about it…."

"With me. You don't want to talk about it with me. I get it now. Perfectly well, actually." Rory avoided eye contact and stood up shakily. She took the seating chart from the table and gave her mother a wave. "I—I have to go."

And the strange thing was, she didn't even try to go after her. Rory even waited outside the door for a few minutes to see if she would even try and make up, but she saw through the windows that she looked without a care. There was a weird feeling inside of her as she dialed the number for a taxi.

"Hi…I really need a taxi to New Haven…"

You know that you've really hit the low point of your life when a taxi driver looks at you with pity. She tried to wipe the tears off her blotchy face, but it wasn't working, all of her make up was running and everyone was sure to notice it. She hated the smell of taxis, it was like the smell of gasoline, which in her opinion was the worst thing that can go up your nostrils.

She had the man drive her right in front of the big iron gates. _Yale._

She took out her cell phone and sighed. "Oh, hey."

Jess' voice was the best thing that she could hear at that moment. "Rory. Hi, umm, where are you? You said you were going to see your mom and then you were going to go see Tristin…did the date go badly?"

"I'm, uhm, at Yale right now…I guess I'll go see him."

"You guess?"

"I wasn't exactly thinking about him when I came here."

She heard a rustling sound, and then his voice came on clear again. "Then, uh, what were you thinking about? Paris?"

"Me, actually."

"That's kind of creepy."

Rory chuckled. "Yeah, well, I'm going through a really creepy phase."

"_I swear to god, I'm going in there after you if you don't come in here this second!"_

Her forehead wrinkled. "Was that a girl? Do you have a girl there?"

"Her name's Julia."

"Julia?"

"Yeah. We kind of met a few weeks ago, so, we're hanging out."

"Oh, dating hanging out…" She nodded, feeling her face grow hot, strangely.

"Umm, I guess."

"So, you're staying at the Inn and hanging out with girls? That's good." She snapped, and then sighed. "I'm sorry…what am I doing? I'm glad you're dating and living in the shed…it's—I mean--,"

"Are you okay?"

"_Jess!"_

"That's her calling you, Jess. You better go. I'm just going through some kind of mood swing right now."

"You don't sound too good."

"I don't feel too good. More like throwing up material."

He sounded worried. "You know, I can drive there and pick you up? I don't think that you should throw up on the bushes at Yale, they probably frown upon that. They prefer a clean Yale."

"Then I'll find a bathroom, but I really have to go."

"_Jess! Who are you talking to?"_

"She sounds needy…I'll leave you to her." Rory shut her cell phone, and she was just feeling much more nauseous. She held on to her stomach, as if she was afraid that it would fall off, and ran to one of the public bathrooms.

As she felt everything she had eaten come back up again, she held on to the toilet, not really caring about the grossness of the toilets in Yale. She flushed the toilet, with her hands feeling clammy and cold. She wiped her mouth with her other hand, and shut her eyes. All of her hair smelled like throw-up, and she had to tie it up into a bun, so she didn't have to smell that horrible smell. She couldn't even find the strength to stand up, so, she sat there on the cold floor of the stall. She just stared at the drawings and words on the walls of the stalls, it was the only thing that was keeping her from getting sick again.

Her throat felt as dry as it could get, and she didn't have a water bottle. She looked at her cell phone and ran through the list of people who she could call. Jess was out of the question, Tristin was not going to make her feel better, she didn't even want to think of her mother, and Luke was out of the question too. She only had one choice left.

"Hi, Grandma, I'm at Yale…" She shook her head at herself, "Um, no, I'm fine. But, can you come pick me up? Maybe I can stay over for the night? It would be so great, you have no idea…Okay. See you."

She stumbled out into the outer-bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hands were sticky with sweat, her hair was a mess, and her eyes were puffy. God, what was she making herself into? A girl that gets upset just because her ex-boyfriend has a new girlfriend? She was definitely not that girl. She was never going to be. Or wanted to be, at least. If that counted for anything.

She rubbed her blotchy eyes, and put on a brave face. She backed away from the sink, and looked at herself in the mirror, from head to toe. She smiled, when her large stomach reminded her that she was carrying something that she loved so much. Rory placed a hand on where Jess had put his hand the first time he had heard his baby.

She suddenly saw his brown eyes flash through her eyes.

"_I thought you didn't read much."_

"_What is much?"_

Then, a big banging in her head started. She had to sit down against the wall, for her not to feel like her head was going to explode. But, she didn't know what the headache was from. All she knew was that she had seen that night, the night that Jess and her met. She saw them, them walking in the street. It was so clear, she felt like she was there again.

Her heart was pumping through her chest, and everything was coming back to her.

"_Think how dull your life would be without me."_

His smirk, that night, it was alive again.

"_I think I may have loved you."_

It echoed in her head.

"_I'm ready for this. You can count on me now. I know you couldn't count on me before, but you can now. You can."_

She held on to herself, not wanting to loose herself in these insane thoughts. But, then she remembered. She hurt him.

"_Don't say no just to make me stop talking or make me go away. Only say no if you really don't want to be with me."_

She stopped, and then her hurting stopped. Everything in her head was out, and she was sweating. What had happened she didn't know, she just started and couldn't stop. She thought for a moment that she was going insane. Or maybe she still was, she sighed. His voice, his voice, it just came back for a second. Maybe she was remembering. Remembering. That was it. Huh.


	11. It's all Coming back to Me

Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore girls.

A/N: Okay, here's the next chapter. It's SUPER long. I made it so this is part 1, and part 2 will come in a couple of days. So, don't kill me. I hope you like it...

**-----**

**Part 1**

"I can't believe you actually did this."

"It's not that surprising, I told you I was going to invite _all _of our family." She said as she dodged a man that was in a hurry, carrying a huge tourist backpack. "Although I'm sure your family will love the great welcome that you'll give them with that huge frown on your face."

"Rory, I didn't tell them that you were pregnant. Liz called me squealing and telling me she was so proud of me. She also said that she would offer any help that she could. 'No thanks, mom.'"

"She was just being nice."

Jess shook his head, groaning. "She said that she was going to bring T.J."

"Well, at least I invited your dad along with his crowd too…"

"And that will be less awkward? They'll probably get into a screaming match in the first five minutes."

Rory stopped short and turned around to look at him angrily. "Okay, Jess, I get it, you don't have a perfect family! Guess what? You'll just have to deal, because this is my night…MINE, now, shut your pie hole or I will do it for you." She snapped. "Now, we have to find a way to get to your dad and his wife."

"Not wife, roomie." Jess mumbled. "You know, I'm not really liking the whole mood swing thing now…"

"Aww, poor Jess, he got yelled at. Shut up, will you?"

"What gave you such a foul mood today?"

"I have told you five billion times, now, let's go ask that man when their plane gets in." She made a sharp turn to a busy man at a desk that was typing something furiously in the computer. "Hi, Hi." She tried to get his attention.

"I'm sorry, but can't you go bother someone else?" He muttered rudely.

Rory was shocked, Jess was afraid that her ears were going to blow steam.

"We need information." Rory stated, "Now, do they not pay you to do that?"

He looked up irritably. "What do you need, Miss?"

"We need to know if the plane from California for 4: 06 is on time?"

The man nodded his bald head after checking the computer. "Now, will you please leave me to do some paperwork?"

Rory rolled her eyes at the man, but then walked off, with Jess following close behind. Jess raised an eyebrow at her, "What are we doing now, power walking?"

"It's 4:04. We literally have two minutes to greet them."

"Oh, those people always lie about the plane landings, plus he looked like he was jinxing you in his mind, _plus _they usually take a billion years to get their luggage."

Rory didn't seem to react at all. They finally found a place to sit while they waited, and Rory couldn't stop tapping her foot.

"Rory, what is wrong?"

"Nothing."

"When are you going to tell me what happened at Yale?"

"Yale? When did I go to Yale?"

Jess sighed, "Last week, but I could see how it's so convenient for you not to remember."

"Well, sorry, but I had a lot of other things going on that week. With the baby dinner and all…" She added hastily, shrugging. "Plus, I don't get why you're so interested, it's not like anything was wrong. I was just feeling a little sick, is that not natural in a pregnancy?"

"I'm not a doctor, but I'm also not an idiot. You've been avoiding me all week, plus when I call, you say that you're doing something really important in a really undescriptive voice. Plus, you never come over. Now, I don't wanna sound like some kind of whining ninny, but do I not exist?"

Rory bit her lip and stopped tapping her foot. "I'm sorry about all that, and I'll try to not do it anymore…it's just that I'm kind of stressed out and adding to the whole Julia thing, I just snapped. I--,"

"Kids!" A woman with blonde hair yelled from across the room, her hair was so blonde that people could mistake it with white. A tall man in his thirties, slightly resembling Jess was standing next to her, carrying a duffle bag and a small girl with glasses and pigtails was standing shyly behind her mother holding on to a large book. They all walked towards them, the small girl holding on to her mother's pants as they walked, making the blonde woman limp a little.

Rory stood up and painted a smile on her face and walked forward to them. "Hi! You must be Sasha…I'm Rory, and…um, Jimmy and Lilly? Did I get all of the names right?"

Lilly nodded, and then spotted Jess behind Rory. She squealed and ran to give him a hug. To Rory's surprise, he scooped her up and squeezed her tightly. Rory watched them and smiled, it was cute for her to watch that, she had never seen him doing something fatherly. Then, she turned back to Sasha and Jimmy.

Sasha was looking at her lovingly with tears in her eyes, "I knew that Jess would knock some girl up some day, but the fact that it's you is so much better than a complete stranger."

"Sasha, she is a complete stranger." Jimmy pointed out, Rory laughed at this, but Sasha didn't consider it funny and shoved her elbow into his ribs. He winced in pain, "Nice to meet you." He said out of breath.

"…and of course I had to give him the two bucks, because, I mean, how many chances do you have to find a weird jellyfish? But, Jimmy said that you could find them in the beach easily." Rory heard Lilly couldn't stop talking to Jess.

"Don't listen to Jimmy, he thinks that Hemmingway is a piece of crap--,"

"Jess! Language!" Sasha yelled.

Lilly scrunched up her nose, "I think that Hemmingway is inspired."

"Great, you've ruined the mind of that poor kid." Rory rolled her eyes, and Jimmy smiled. She turned to Jess' father. "But, I'm glad someone in Jess' family shares my opinion."

"Yeah, he keeps on making me read the same books over and over again." He nodded, understanding.

Sasha chuckled, shaking her head. "I think that you'll get along just fine."

Jimmy smirked, instantly remembering Jess' smirk, they were exactly the same. Jimmy grabbed Lilly out of Jess' arms and let her climb up on his back. "Come on, inspired reader, piggy back ride."

Jess sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. "Well, the car's outside. We should go." They all nodded, and Sasha immediately grabbed Rory by the arm as they walked.

"You have to tell me everything about these past months…" She started.

Rory looked back at Jess as she talked, and gave him a smile of reassurance. He smirked at her, and then continued walking.

XX

Lorelai kicked the oven, "Okay, what do I do now?"

"Sit down and don't kick the oven." Sookie instructed, opening the oven to check on the roast beef. "How many people are coming again? I have to make sure that I have enough specifically. Not more than fifty, right? Because I made just for fifty...and I'm not sure that one more could even fit in my meal plan."

She smiled, "I think we'll be okay. It's just…Lane, the whole band, Mrs. Kim, Ms. Patty, Babette, Morey is out of town, Emily and Richard Gilmore…my kid's too nice, you, Jackson, Davey, me, Rory, Jess, Liz, T.J, Jess' dad and his wife and her kid, Kirk, Chris, Gigi, Dean, Lindsay, Tristin, Paris, and…umm, I think Luke, since it's at Luke's diner we can't really stop him…plus, maybe Rory invited him."

Sookie raised an eyebrow at this, "Maybe?"

"It's not official or anything…but, last time we talked, well, she sounded like she was gonna do it."

"Oh...was that the fight?"

"No. It was before the fight."

"You make up yet?"

Lorelai sighed, "Maybe? I don't know. She kind of just talks to me when she has to, or to make a comment. So, she's not completely forgiven me I guess. But, what can I do?"

"Apologize maybe."

"Well, I can't do that, because, then I'd have to tell her about what happened with Luke…which I can't do yet. I mean, I haven't even adjusted myself…it'd be weird for me to talk to someone else. I'm sorry I haven't told you, by the way. Can you understand my crazy reasoning?" Lorelai looked up at Sookie.

"Of course, pumpkin. But I don't think Rory does."

"I wish she did." Then, Lorelai kind of snapped out of her trance. "Anyways, she's gonna be home in a really short time. And I don't think that it'd be polite to cry in our guest's faces."

Sookie smiled, but checked her watch and jumped. "It's four! God, we invited people for 6. We'll never make in time. Lorelai, I'm gonna go over to the diner to put the food that I made so far on the tables. You coming with?"

"Um," Lorelai bit her lip, thinking about Luke. "sure. I'll go."

"You're in charge of the decorations, right?"

Lorelai nodded, fakely smiling.

XX

"We're here…" Jess muttered, pulling up to the diner. He looked at Sasha, Jimmy, and Lilly. "Me and Rory just need to change quickly, then we'll be down to join the party with you guys." Sasha smiled and nodded, and they all got out of the car. He turned to Rory, "Um, so, are we good so far?"

Rory swallowed heavily, "Let's just try to get through this evening, okay?"

"Okay."

They both walked inside the diner, and were greeted by a bunch of peppy people. Patty and Babette gave them suffocating hugs, and then they escaped quickly upstairs. Rory, walked out of the bathroom, after spending about an hour getting ready. She walked to the mirror, and picked out the best necklace that would go with her outfit She smiled at herself, "Jess, come help me with the necklace." Jess, who was just adding gel to his hair, quickly came to the rescue.

"You look nice." He nodded.

Rory rolled her eyes, "Please. I look horrible and fat."

"Hello negative attitude."

"It's the mood sw--,"

"swings." He finished for her, "You do know that after you have the baby you won't be able to use that excuse?"

She smiled, "Well, I still have time to use it to my pleasure."

They both walked down the stairs together, where everyone was now engrossed in their own conversations. Rory glanced around the room, and found Tristin sitting in a corner. Jess quickly understood, and went on to go get something to drink. She bit her lip, and walked over.

Tristin smirked, "You look beautiful."

"No I don't." She beamed, kissing his lips lightly. "Anyways, how's the party going so far?" She asked, sitting down next to him.

He nodded, "Good, I guess. That Ms. Patty woman has already pinched my butt twice…is that normal?"

"I would not put it past her."

He smiled, and put a hand on her knee.

On the other side of the room, Jess was watching them closely, taking sips of beer every once in a while. He felt someone creep behind him, and there was Lorelai, watching him watching Tristin and Rory.

"Huh, I would have never thought of you as a _Every Breath You Take _kind of guy."

He simply replied by taking a swing of his beer.

"Well, I see that you are enjoying the party."

"Yes, it's going wonderfully so far." He said sarcastically, sighing. "You and Rory still fighting? I don't see that you've talked to her in the five minutes that we have been here."

Lorelai frowned, "Well, umm, I'm making the rounds. I just finished talking to your charming father, and when I went to say hi to Dean and Lindsay, I found Lilly stuffed behind the counter. With a book. So, yeah, it's been very hectic for me, I didn't really have time to go and talk to Rory yet."

"Your life can be so convenient sometimes."

Lorelai smiled, "Hey, don't stay in this corner forever. Mingle."

"Uh-huh."

_Ding, Ding._

Luke entered the diner, and suddenly everyone became quiet and turned their heads in his direction and then looked at Lorelai. She froze with a margarita in her hand, in mid-sip. Then, she realized what they were all staring at and she put the glass down. It was awkward, no one was talking and Luke was kind of just standing there frozen.

_Ding, Ding._

Emily and Richard Gilmore walked in to a quiet room where everyone was staring at Lorelai.

"Well, what is everyone staring at? Honestly, do you people have no manners? If the party is boring, you might as well just keep to yourself, there's no need to _stare._" Emily said sharply, huffing.

Then, slowly, conversations started up again, and they were no longer focused on Luke and Lorelai. Although, Ms. Patty and Babette were still eyeing them and whispering to each other. Rory soon walked up to greet her grandparents.

"Grandma, Grandpa. Hi." Rory smiled brightly.

Richard nodded, "Hello Rory. You are certainly glowing."

"Thank you. Drinks?"

Lorelai stood watching Luke from behind the counter, with Lilly looking up at her very strangely.

"I'm sorry, but, what's wrong?" Lilly asked, closing her book.

She blinked looking down at her. "Oh nothing…my stupid relationship problems."

"What's the story with this guy?"

Lorelai smiled, and sat down behind the counter with the kid. It was like their own secret clubhouse, "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Oh, I'm used to problems like these…Jimmy's a handful."

Lorelai smiled at this girl's boldness. "Well, his name is Luke…and we had been going out for a while. Quite a while…and then he asked me to marry him, but I said no."

"No? Why would you say no?"

"Um, it's complicated."

Lilly had this really dreamy look on her face, "Did you love him?"

Lorelai laughed. "Yeah, I did."

"You did or you do?"

"What is this? 20 questions?" She smiled.

"It's just romantic for me, I mean, the most romantic thing that Jimmy has done for mom is get he pineapple on her pizza."

"But, it wasn't even romantic. He just asked, there was no fluff or flowers or carefully planned dinners, he didn't express his love to me in a Romeo and Juliet kind of way…he just asked. Besides, I've never actually been for making a big deal out of things that are just better left simple."

"So, you don't like it when men give you romantic gestures?"

Lorelai chuckled, "Lilly, aren't you a bit young for this conversation?"

"I am very mature for my age."

"Uh-huh…just stick to barbies, kid. I would like to go back to those ages."

"I want to grow up soon, I'm getting very restless."

"No you don't. Trust me. It just gets harder." She sighed, rubbing her temples. She suddenly saw a shadow hover over her, she looked up to see Luke standing next to her. She looked back at Lilly, who was smirking. "Um, I'll be back." Lorelai shakily stood up off the ground to look a Luke.

He wrinkled his forehead, "Uh...?" He gestured to the floor.

"Um, we were having a girl talk." She avoided his eyes, "Sorry, but I gotta go…mingle."

Luke watched her leave, and sighed.

XX

"So, how's it going so far?"

"I'm avoiding Jess, and keeping away from his girlfriend...plus, I have to go over and talk to Mom…she looks really upset."

"With the whole Luke thing?" Lane inquired, setting her soda down and sitting at the counter, in front of Rory, who was making herself an alcohol free drink behind the counter. "The mystery continues?"

She shrugged, "I'm not going to care anymore. I have enough things to worry about."

"Sing it, sister."

She raised an eyebrow at Lane and laughed.

"What about the Jess thing?"

"Did I forget to tell you what happened?"

"Kind of." Lane smiled sheepishly. "But, that's okay."

Rory groaned, "No, it's not. I'm sorry. I'll tell you now. You wanna go up to my apartment and I could spill my guts? It'll be fun…" She said in a singsong voice.

Lane nodded, and giggled. "Let's go."

They trotted up the stairs, talking. Rory opened the door, smiling. "Oh." She stopped laughing and smiling. Jess and Julie. In her bed. Making out? Her heart felt like it completely stopped. Lane was looking at her friend, trying to decide what to do in that moment. Jess and Julie had just noticed that they were standing there, (Julie, of course, not knowing, just blushed) but Jess was now completely pale.

"We're sorry. We'll just go." Lane said hastily, turning on her heel. She was probably half down the stairs when she noticed that Rory wasn't following. She panicked straight away and ran to Lorelai. "Lorelai, Lorelai, uh, Rory…she's upstairs and Julie and Jess were making out. And, she won't move. I don't know what t--,"

Lorelai looked worried, and ran up the stairs. She found that Rory was sitting down on the floor, looking into space, and Jess was kneeling in front of her trying to snap her out of it.

"Rory…Rory. Come on." Jess sounded desperate, she could hear his voice cracking. "Lorelai. She just snapped, she slid down the doorframe and she was moving, but it's like she's in another universe."

Lorelai ran a hand through her hair, and sat down next to her daughter. "Jess, get Julie out of here and get her a wash cloth for her face. She's going to be fine." She could see tears in her eyes. She knew that she wasn't moving, but there was something that she had to be thinking. "Honey, I'm right here."

Jess wasn't moving, he was just standing there looking at Rory.

"Jess! Snap out of it! Get her a washcloth."

He immediately moved out of the room, quickly being followed by Julie, who looked as if she had done something deadly wrong.

"Baby." Lorelai cooed, holding on to her daughter. "I love you, and Jess loves you. I know it was scary for a second, but you gotta come back to us. Nothing's changed, he still loves you, honey. Okay? Now, please, come back to us." Lorelai felt tears running down her cheeks. She saw that Rory blinked, and then turned her head when Jess walked into the room.

Her blue eyes filled with tears immediately.

Jess' eyes ran all over Rory's body and then stopped short at her eyes. "Lorelai, please, can you leave us for a second?"

"But, she's not better yet. She's not completely here. And, besides, I don't want you to upset her."

"I won't." He reassured, but she didn't look too convinced. "Lorelai, I won't." He said more firmly.

Lorelai kissed Rory's forehead, and then turned to walk out the door, but stopped. "I'm sorry." Rory seemed to understand as she blinked twice. Lorelai felt her eyes water again, so, she quickly escaped.

Jess closed the door after her, and then turned to Rory again. He kneeled before her once again. "Rory? Talk to me. You need to now."

Rory opened her mouth as if to say something, but quickly closed it again.

"Please, Ror."

Her chest was heaving up and down, and she bit her lip. "I'm fine." She whispered in words that were barely comprehendible.

"Oh, thank god." He kissed her forehead on impulse. "What happened? What—why would you get so upset? It thought we were okay and everything…you seemed fine before. What happened?"

She cleared her throat and looked at him intensely. "I—I don't know."

He sighed, and handed her the wash towel. "Does it have anything to do with Julia? Or was it something else?"

Rory didn't even take the towel, and looked at him like he was crazy. "Of course it had something to do with you and Julia! I don't know what you think, but I—I'm not going to be alright with this. Not now. I don't want you to date."

"I don't think that's fair."

"Maybe it's not…but, it's what I'm feeling."

Jess shook his head, "I can't do that."

"What?"

"I can't do that unless you give me a real reason not to. Not a Rory Reason. A real one. The only reason that would stop me." Jess heaved a sigh, looking up at her tear stained face. "Tell me you love me."

She felt as if someone else were speaking her words, it was surreal. "I can't do that. No." She found herself shaking her head hard. "I can't and I'm not going to. I'm sorry."

"Do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Love me."

Rory swallowed hard. "This is so inappropriate. We're having a baby together, and I have a boyfriend. I can't deal with this right now."

"Because you found me making out with Julie?"

"No."

"Because I might want to remind you that I found you and Tristin in the same position. And worse, because you ment it."

"What do you mean?" Rory looked confused, "You mean you don't…?"

"Love Julie? No. But, I do think she's fine."

"Fine?"

"Fine."

Rory looked down at her feet and sighed. "I'm okay, Jess. See, I'm speaking perfectly fine. So, you can go back to the party."

"Not until you tell me what happened at Yale." He insisted.

"I—I can't."

He ran a hand through his hair, not wanting to even pursue the subject. "Will you at least come downstairs with me?"

"Um, I don't think I want to. I'll be up here."

XX

Lorelai stood outside the door of the diner, sighing. It was cold out, and she didn't have a coat, but she couldn't go back into the diner, because of all of the commotion. She sat on the curb and watched cars drive by silently. She even played with snow at her feet, and mixed it in with dirt. That's how she felt. "Ugh." She muttered to no one in particular, and burrowed her face into her hands.

"Could you use a jacket?"

She heard Luke's gruff voice behind her and turned her head, blushing. "Um, sure. Thanks." She stood up, and took the jacket from his hands, doing a little dance with her feet, nervously. "What's happening in there? Did you get to see Rory?"

"Um, no. Jess isn't letting anyone get through. Although I think Tristin's up there now. Jess would probably have his head. It was pretty cute how he was overprotective." Luke sighed, adjusting his baseball cap.

Lorelai nodded. "Well, you better get back. I know that someone has to host the party, Jess isn't exactly Mr. Personality."

"You know, this isn't fair."

Lorelai looked down, and tried to look confused. "What isn't?"

"That you're the one upset, when it was you who said no to the ring, not me. I should be the one avoiding you, or spiting your name."

"Then, why aren't you?"

He dodged her eyes. "Well, for one thing, I can't keep away from you. Everywhere I go, you're there. Plus, it'd be rude to not accept the invitation. And...I need an explanation."

"More of an explanation than I already gave you?"

"One that makes sense."

She shook her head grudgingly. "Luke, please."

"Please what, Lorelai? It's not normal for you to do this...and usually, I would just stand to the side and let you do your own thing, but no, that's not the case now. Why can't you just give me a reason?"

"I'm not giving anyone a reason. It's going to cause more pain than needed."

"I'll be the judge of that."

"Luke..."

Luke sighed, "If I'm really that horrible, why were you even with me?"

Lorelai had tears in her eyes, now. "You want to know the reason, Luke? Do you really want to know? Well, the reason is love. Yes, love. I can tell you I love you a million times, but I never hear you say it. It's like, you kiss me, you sweep me off my feet...but, how do you feel? We can't base a relationship on witty banter...not anymore."

Luke stuck his hands in his pockets, "Is that what you think it is? Witty banter?"

"That's what it is...it's not a deceleration of love, or a romantic evening. I don't even know if you can actually say it. Can you? Can you say that you love me without flinching, Luke?"

Quiet.

Lorelai shook her head, wiping tears off of her cheeks. "I gotta go."

XX

Rory laid in the bed, watching the ceiling. There really was a lot to think about. What was that whole conversation with Jess? Did she give the right answer to the question? And when she saw them, Julie and Jess, right where she was sitting now, what had happened? Why was she getting so damn upset at something that long passed.

"_Don't say no just to make me stop talking or make me go away. Only say no if you really don't want to be with me."_

_Rory's mind was reeling. Go away with him? Why would she do that? Only if she was insane. She looked at him closely. She had dreamed for so long to be in his arms again, she might do it just to feel what it felt like again. This was the same as Kyle's bedroom, it was ludicrous, really. But, she felt like crap after he walked down the street so mad, she just wanted to kiss him and make it better. She had been ready for that step, the big one. The step that she would remember all her life._

"_Jess. I–-," She opened her mouth as if to say something, but closed it again and sighed. "This is not the way it's supposed to be. I wanted this to be different...I wish you would have stayed before, this is one of those moments where I wish that I had a time machine..."_

"_Rory, this is our chance to start over."_

_She felt a familiar feeling in the bottom of her stomach like she did every time he talked. "Can you–Will you stay the night?" She wasn't familiar in asking this._

"_What?"_

"_I might not go with you..but, one night. It's what I need so I'm not pining for you forever."_

"_I think this would just make it worse."_

_Rory sighed, "Maybe it will...but, it's just that I always regretted not saying goodbye to you on that bus when I knew that, that was it. Because, I knew the way you looked at me. And if we weren't fighting, maybe I could have kissed you goodbye."_

"_You want to kiss me goodbye?" He asked softly._

_Her blue eyes glistened and she leaned forward. "Just one–," She was cut off by the attraction, she couldn't hold it in anymore. She kissed him tenderly and passionately. It was like it was so addicting, that she only stopped to take a breath._

"_Is this–,"_

_Rory nodded, sincerely. "It'll be okay."_


	12. Somebody to Love

A/N: Told you I'd be fast…Enjoy!

-----

**Part 2**

A knock on the door took Rory out of her own little world. "Come in." She said shakily, not recovering from her moment. The worst person that could come into the room that moment pranced in looking worried. "Tristin, hi. I don't know if Jess was out there telling anybody this…but, I really need to rest." Her voice sounded cold, not at all how she planned it to be.

Tristin sat down at the edge of the bed and sighed. "I don't know what that was all about, Rory. How am I supposed to let you rest?"

"What was about?" She asked stupidly, being in her own world and all, she couldn't even remember what happened. Then, it came back to her. "Oh…yeah, that was just a scare. Me and the baby are fine. You don't need to worry, although, it's very sweet, there's no need."

He shook his head. "Rory, you can't shut me out."

This was officially irritating her. "I was not shutting you out, I just don't want to talk! Is that not okay? I'm just not in the _mood._"

"I'm asking you to be in the mood."

"You're such a jerk, Tristin."

Tristin shook his head. "What's wrong?"

And that's when everything went wrong. With that look on his face, and the feelings inside her, she just burst. She couldn't stop crying, it was like a huge water fall was held inside of her, and she finally got to let it free. But, when Tristin reached out to console her, she just pushed him away.

"Everything's just so messed up. I didn't ask for my life to be this way…I want; I just want to be normal. But, that can't happen can it?"

He ran a hand through his hair. "How do I fit into your life?"

It was sudden, and it made her stop crying. She sniffled, "I'm spilling my guts here and you're asking me how you fit into my life?"

"Yes. Because your not spilling your guts to _me_. I'm your last resort. First, you go to Lorelai, or Jess, or maybe you even go to the town troubadour before you talk to me. I'm the last one. When, I think that I should be the first one. On the top of the list."

Rory bit her lip, "It's not fair for you to ask that. My mom is first."

"What about Jess?"

"You're asking me to give up Jess?"

"No. I'm saying Jess is more important than me. Isn't he?"

Rory looked at her feet. "I think you should go."

XX

Luke had cleared out after his conversation with Lorelai, even though Jess was looking for him. That's when Lorelai caught up with him. She rested a hand on his shoulder, making him jump. He turned to look at her.

"Do you know where Luke might be?" He asked.

Lorelai looked down, sighing. "He might have…left."

"Left? Why would he—oh. You guys had a fight. It was bound to happen anyways."

She smiled. "You know, your one of the only people who understands me so well." He rolled his eyes. "No, I'm serious. This is the second time we've really talked, alone, and we've gotten even more pathetic. I wouldn't think that was even possible, but I guess we hold a record."

"Yeah, well, I'm kind of known for that."

"Something happen with Rory?" She chuckled.

Jess considered telling her what happened, and then scolded himself mentally. "Um, no. I just calmed her down…I think. You know how I can screw those things up."

Babette then appeared in front of them, smiling broadly. "Well, this is going great. I'm just sad that Rory's not feeling so well…she's such a doll. It's such a wonderful party; she's missing a great deal."

Lorelai mustered up a fake smile. "Thanks for coming, Babette."

"Hey, the party's not over yet!"

Then, she went over to join her group.

"It's funny how people can be so oblivious." Lorelai snorted, "So, what's up with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you enjoying our baby dinner?" She asked sarcastically.

Jess smirked, "Well, we haven't exactly had dinner yet…and I think that's where the real drama will start. But, so far, I think it's going so crappy that I can't even be happy about the fact that we're celebrating mine and Rory's baby. Which, I see doesn't even have an effect on Rory, because she's too into her chaos."

She looked at Jess with a doubtful face. "Don't worry, she's still our Rory. She's going to come down eventually and blush…and it'll all be fine. I think some of us need to hear that once in a while."

"Yeah, I was starting to doubt that it was."

Lorelai smiled, "Well, I think this is the start for some fine-ness." She pointed to the stairs, and he turned.

There, standing at the top of the stairs, was Rory. She had fully re-done her makeup, and she had unwrinkled her dress. She looked beautiful and he couldn't deny it. He walked over to her, and beamed.

"What--,"

She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "I think it's time for dinner."

XX

"That was good. Fake, but good."

"How come I can never win with you?" She giggled.

"What happened with Tristin?"

"Do we always have to go back to the heavy subjects?"

"He wasn't there for dinner."

She shrugged, scrubbing the plate forcefully. "I didn't notice…so, lighter topic?"

"You fought." He seemed very impressed with himself that he had figured that out.

Rory smiled, picking up foam from the sink. "I'm going to throw this at you."

"Go ahead, it's not like you can get me. Terrible aim that you have." Jess smirked, not looking threatened. He picked up some foam from his sink and lifted it up. "Now, I can do it very easily. I have great aim."

"I don't know why, but I can't picture you in Little League Baseball."

He lifted it up higher.

Rory laughed uncontrollably. "You wouldn't dare!" She wet her hands and sprinkled it all over his shirt, and in turn, he shook his head, and threw the foam. She shrieked, "I am so going to get you!"

"Just try."

She rolled her eyes. "You know, it's amazing that we ended up having a water fight when they asked us to _wash the dishes._"

"I was never good at cleaning."

She gave a happy sigh. "Have I told you lately that I'm really happy about this?"

"About what?"

"Us. The baby. I'm glad that we have some weird moments, but that we can get through them and get to the fun parts…the parts that are worth remembering. Those moments that just play over and over in your head."

Jess looked at Rory, getting an overwhelming feeling settling in his stomach. "I'm happy that you happy."

She glowed, smiling, and took his wet hand. "I don't think I've let you feel our child in a long time." She placed his hand on her already wet dress, right above where she heard the heartbeat.

_She opened her eyes; the sheets were barely covering her. She remembered that she had packed the long ones the night before. She traced small circles on his bare stomach, smiling. She kissed his chest repeatedly, but he didn't wake._

"_I love you."_


	13. Formal FreakOuts

Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls, only the plot.

A/N: I have updated. Anyone proud?

--

_2 months later…_

"I'm not okay with this." Lorelai protested, as Rory pulled on her arm and proceeded to pull her down the sidewalk. "Rory." She whined. "You asked me if I was okay with this...and I said no, so why are you still doing this?"

Rory stopped walking for a second, and turned to her mother. "Okay, I did not ask for your permission. I merely asked you if you were particularly fond of this complex situation...Plus, it was you who suggested it from the beginning."

"Yes, but that was _before. _Now, it's a little creepy. With the whole 'I love you' thing and the Tristin thing. He could be a stalker."

"Well, I'm so glad that you say that now, before I've slept with him and carried his baby for _nine months_." She stated sarcastically.

Lorelai shook her head stubbornly.

Rory didn't stop this time, and grabbed her mother's hand.

Lorelai huffed, walking slowly behind her daughter. "You know? I think I heard little Jess junior in there and he said that he is not okay with this either!" She put a hand on Rory's stomach; she felt something and jumped away. "Oh my god!"

Rory looked aggravated, "What?"

"He moved!"

She sighed, "We don't know if it's a he."

"Well, right now it doesn't matter what it has down there because it kicked!" Lorelai smiled, excitedly. "Aww...it wants to come out into the world." She rubbed her daughter's stomach, crouching down.

"I don't think I'm ready for a pre-mature child yet."

She smirked, "Then what's Jess?"

Rory looked very annoyed at her mother. "I thought you were over the whole Jess thing..."

"Just because I'm over it doesn't mean I can't have a little spat about him every once in a while." Lorelai smiled, and then fake gasped and put her ear to her daughter's stomach. "What's that I hear...?"

Rory rolled her eyes.

"Wait, wait, Oh my god! She's saying that she's not okay with this." Lorelai gasped, smirking.

Rory groaned, "First of all, mature much? And second of all, we don't know if it's a she. Now, come on, or you will not be allowed to be there when I ask him." Lorelai sighed, and nodded. They both walked to Luke's together, Lorelai slower than Rory. But, Rory in fact, was pretty nervous. She was the one putting herself out there and being vulnerable.

She did not like being in that spot…especially with Jess.

When they were outside the diner, Lorelai checked to see if Luke was anywhere to be seen, which she wasn't so she ran inside and demanded for coffee.

"Lorelai, you can't keep doing this…you only come here when he's not here and then you ask for free coffee." Jess sighed, but filled up her cup.

She smiled, "Families get a discount."

"But, we're not related."

"We became related when you and Rory--,"

Rory interrupted, stepping up. "Mom! Please!"

"Sorry. Am I being embarrassing?"

She rolled her eyes. "Just a tad." Jess smirked at this as she turned to him. "Can I—I mean, can I talk to you in the storage room for a bit? I just have something to discuss with you."

He nodded, and dropped the dirty rag that he had been carrying around for quite a while. "You're very formal." He commented, closing the door behind them.

"Well, I'm nervous."

"I think we're past that stage, Rory. I think we've had enough embarrassing moments for us not to be."

She felt herself blush.

"Now, what did you want to ask me?"

She looked up at him, meeting his gaze. "I know we've been through a lot of crap and everything. But, I've been thinking of this for a long time. I even made a pro/con list and everything. It was my mom's idea in the beginning."

"Growing a beard here."

"Sorry," She apologized, "Will you move in with me?"

His eyes widened, and he ran a hand through his hair. "Like how?"

The question she wasn't expecting just hit her in the face. "You're asking me how?"

"Well, I don't know…I guess I mean, what's the purpose?"

"To help me with the baby. I mean, it's my last month with the baby in my stomach, and I'm getting lonely…and I need help. I'm not the kind of person who likes to ask for help. But, here I am. And it wouldn't even be permanent. Just for now and a few months after the baby is born." She sighed, leaning against the wall.

"You did say that you would help out." She added quickly after her mini-speech.

Jess nodded. "I did."

"But, it was a long time ago. I guess I would understand if yo--,"

"Rory." He stopped her before she could go on. "Don't be crazy. Of course I'll move in with you. I wouldn't even think twice about it. Because, well, I've been feeling useless these past few months. I'm barely doing anything but screwing things up, and your doing all the work."

Rory smiled. "As long as you're here, it counts for everything."

XX

"You're moving in with her? In the same apartment?"

Jess rolled his eyes, setting down the boxes that Luke had asked him to bring in. "Yes, for the millionth time. Is that baseball hat finally affecting your hearing?"

He sat down, surprised. "Wow. And I thought she had decided not to do it."

"Oh yeah, Lorelai told me that she was thinking about it."

Luke re-adjusted his baseball cap for the hundreth time, like he did every time anyone mentioned Lorelai. "So, when will you be moving in?"

"I don't know. We don't even know _where _we're going to move in. But, she did ask me to ask you to help." Jess lifted one of the boxes up over his head, "But that seems very doubtful since you won't even stand up and work for your own lousy boxes."

It was spring, yet it was hot, and Jess was already sweating from the work. He took his shirt off carelessly and threw it across the room. (A/N: Jess shirtless. HOTTIE. Lol.) He took a swing from the beer that rested on one of the disheveled boxes.

"Geez, do you mind keeping your clothes on?"

Jess sat down next to Luke. "I don't see you sweating."

Luke scowled at him and pointed to the shirt. "Put it on."

He smirked, "You're ruining my liberty."

"You're kind of liberty can become dangerous." He narrowed his eyes on his nephew.

They sat in silence for a few seconds, both thinking their own thoughts. Luke spoke up first, though.

"So, how is _everyone?_"

"Fine. Keeping busy, but good." Jess knew exactly what his uncle meant.

Luke stood up, finally deciding to do some work. "Okay. Well, you can go. I'll finish up here."

XX

"Can I just jiggle it right out of me?"

Chris shook his head, smiling. "Well, maybe that will work. But, what I think would be way more effective is jumping up and down really hard."

Rory rolled her eyes, "I get it. There's no need to mock."

"Yes. That was my idea from the beginning, so, you're mocking me too." Lorelai stood up for herself.

"You're both crazy." Jess muttered, changing the channel, he flipped through a channel that showed a picture of a baby and Rory went nuts.

She snatched the control from his hand. "Don't change it! Okay, there." She settled on the channel that had shown a baby and now it was showing a woman breathing really loudly in a bed, she was obviously in labor.

Lorelai cringed. "I think this is more graphic than porn."

"Rory, change it, please." Jess put both hands in front of his eyes.

Rory shook her head firmly. "Hey, I am the creator of this very special movie night…and I get to decide what to watch. Plus, you better get used to it, mister, this is exactly what's going to be happening when I'm in labor."

Chris looked at the TV screen sideways, "Hopefully it'll be prettier."

"Yeah, and who said I'm going into the delivery room?"

Rory narrowed her eyes at Jess. "I am not going to squeeze a human being out of me alone. If I have to, I'm going to break your hand. You're not getting out of this."

The woman on the television gave a very loud scream.

"Oh no…the camera's moving south…everyone close their eyes!" Lorelai shut her eyes tightly.

"Eww...Rory, please." Jess moaned.

"Jess, this is exactly what's going to be happening in there. I think this is what is going to make you realize that _this _is what we're going to be doing in there."

Chris smirked. "Yeah, it's not just a catcher who stands in front of Rory, and she just pushes and then it pops right out of her."

Lorelai giggled. "That would be much more fun than what I had to go through."

"Aww, they see the head!" Rory jumped up and down excitedly.

"Rory, I hope that that's your pregnant hormones that are making you do this. Because, that, is not cute." Jess sighed, looking at Rory. She shrugged, and kept on watching.

Then, suddenly, Rory's face dropped. She turned to her mother. "Does it really hurt that much?"

Lorelai smiled at her daughter. "And more."

Jess smirked widely. "I think someone other than me is getting the point."

She stuck out her bottom lip. "Mommy, how can I make it come out slower?"

Her father patted her head. "Cross your legs."

Rory rolled her eyes. "I don't exactly think that will work, but whatever." She stood up, turning off the TV. "Um, I think I'm going outside for some fresh air. Jess, coming?"

Jess looked at Chris at Lorelai and then back at Rory. "Yeah."

They walked out the door together, Rory hugging he sweater that she grabbed on her way out the door closely. She smiled, pointing to the wooden swing on the porch. They both sat, in a silent agreement.

"I just wanted to talk."

Jess furrowed a brow. "Uh-oh."

"Except it isn't anything like that. It's about all of this. It's happening really fast, and I just want you to know that I have not hit any freaky moments yet. And I don't think I'm going to hit the freaking out button from now on."

He looked at her. "Meaning?"

"The night at the baby shower was just too many things at once. But, now, I'm good. So, I don't want you to be worried about this now that we're moving in together." She paused, "Wow. Moving in together. Sounds so formal."

"I think everything's going into place."

"I just feel like one moment everything's fine, and then the world blows up."

Jess smirked, rolling his eyes. "Drama queen."

"No, I'm serious. But, don't worry. I'm not going to freak out. I've made a promise to myself."

"Then what's this that you're doing here?"

Rory stopped to look at him, surprised at the question. "What?"

Jess sighed, leaning back. "Well, you might not know it…but, this may be a way for you to freak out. Like, if you really were going to start fresh…then why would you have to prove it to me? Or why would you even say it?"

"I wanted to make it clear."

"To yourself?"

"Are you actually analyzing me?" She snapped.

Jess shook his head. "I'm just…I'm making trouble for myself. Sorry."

She nodded slowly. "I'm not proving anything. I just want everything to be okay. And it will be. I mean, we're moving in and your going to help me. It was all I was thinking about. I thought that the not freaking out would be a good thing?"

He shook his head at himself, patting her lap. "It's good, Rory. I think your going to be a great mother."

"Am I?" She looked down. "Sometimes I wonder if I will."

"That's something I'm sure of. You'll be a great mother. Zero freak outs."

"I hope so." She laughed bitterly, sighing. She looked up, looking at him sincerely. "You'll make a great father."

"I never thought those words would be said to me in this lifetime." He nodded. "But, then again, I never thought a lot of thing would happen."

--

A/N: All in all, this was an okay chapter. That's my review. Lol. I can be weird sometimes. But, it's true. I thought it was kind of rushed. –sigh- It was the best I could do, though. I hope to scrounge up a better chapter for the next update. Promise. Anyways, it probably had to have all of that randomness because of all of that intense stuff that happened in the last two chapters. I don't want my readers to die from angst. :

**Please review!** (even if it sucked)


	14. Eskimo Love

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you might recognize.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I really am. I had a bit of a writer's block for this chapter, and maybe it didn't turn out as good as I would have liked it to. But, I really needed to get through this chapter so it can lead up to the big events. hint, hint lol.

Anyways, hope you like the chapter and please comment (positive or negative)

--

Rory lazily opened her eyes and took in the surroundings around her. Seeing that she was not in her bedroom, she jumped up, conking her head on the ceiling. Looking around, she saw that it wasn't a ceiling, as she was in a car. She quickly moved herself so she could see who was driving the mystery car.

"Morning Sunshine."

"Dammit, Jess. You scared the hell out of me," Rory mumbled, hitting him on the shoulder. "Do you know how terrifying it is to wake up in a strange car in the middle of some strange place?"

Jess smirked, looking back at her. "Nope. But I have to experience that sometime." Rory simply shuffled around in response. "Man, your cranky."

She rubbed her eyes, not answering his comment. "What am I doing here?"

"I kidnapped you."

Rory rolled her eyes, "If you kidnap someone, it might be wise to keep it a bit of a secret that you have actually kidnapped them."

He shrugged, turning on the radio at ease. "Sleep well?"

"No." She muttered.

"Hey, I was very quiet and subtle when I picked you up and dressed you."

Rory's eyes widened. "You dressed me? You are a sick perv."

"I simply changed your pajamas…I have not looked past what you wear under your clothes," He smirked. "Besides, nothing I haven't seen before."

She folded her arms in front of her chest, pouting. "Sexual harassment. Someone call a nun."

Jess looked at her with amusement playing on his face. "We had sex and are having a baby out of wedlock. I think we have committed enough sin to reserve us a nice little room in hell."

Rory climbed into the front seat, not wanting to answer the comment. He helped her through as she was having a little bit of trouble since she had the large stomach. "Where are we going anyways?" She asked as she fixed her wrinkled shirt.

"A surprise."

She furrowed a brow, "I don't like surprises."

"Too bad," He gave her a smirk.

Rory frowned. "Couldn't you have picked out an outfit that matched?" She looked down at her outfit.

Jess looked at her and gazed at her with a confused look on his face. "I thought it was okay."

"At least we officially know that you're not gay."

"Speaking for men's rights, you don't have to be gay to have good fashion sense."

She smiled, patting his lap. "Even if you were gay, I don't think you would have good fashion sense. I mean, look at what you wear every day. It's the same thing day after day."

He screeched to a halt, a second later, making her jerk forward. Jess took the keys out of the ignition and opened the door. "You coming?" She gave him an excited nod as they climbed out of the car.

Rory soon saw that they were parked right in front of a huge apartment building. She looked at it in awe and then glanced over at Jess who was waiting by to see her reaction. "What is this?"

"Well," Jess started. "I thought that we really needed to catch up on our Super Duper Apartment Scavenger Hunt."

She gave him a happy look. "Mom just couldn't hold back on naming it, huh?"

He shook his head, amused. "I came here with Lorelai a week ago…to see if she liked the place when I had found it a long time ago. I wanted to make sure someone else liked it before I brought you."

"Jess, this is great." She bit her bottom lip, not being able to contain her smile.

"Come and check it out on the inside."

They walked side by side into the building. The walls along the staircase were cream colored and there were two doors heading into each apartment in each floor. When they got to the third floor, Rory was already in love with the apartment without even seeing the inside of the place.

He put his hand on the doorknob and stared at her. "Should I leave you to the suspense?"

Rory gave him a death glare. "Don't you dare. I've already worked myself up for this super apartment."

"Who says that it's super? It doesn't fly…and with all I know so far it has no relationship with Robin," He chuckled as he turned the doorknob and opened the door slowly. "Tada."

Her eyes went from left to right all around the apartment. It was emptied out as far as she could see and there were white and yellow painted walls. She walked into the apartment, her shoes clicking against the floor. The noise echoed through the place as she looked around.

Rory looked to her right and saw a small room that would be the kitchen, already equipped with a fridge and counters but no stove. It was a pretty small kitchen, but that was not a worry since she didn't cook. She exited the room and looked around the living room. (Or what she guessed that would be the living room) It was a bit bigger than the kitchen as it stretched out until you hit the hallway, where there was one bathroom and two rooms.

One of the rooms was as big as the kitchen, and the other one was a little bit bigger.

Rory took it all in, eyes wide. She turned around to see that Jess was behind her in every step. She swallowed hard, a smile spreading all over her face. "Wow, Jess."

"Love it? Hate it?"

She shook her head, "I wouldn't be surprised if it could fly."

They shared a known expression before Rory shrieked and ran to give him a hug. He smirked and burrowed his face in her hair. The vanilla smell that he lived for. When Rory pulled away, he had to snap himself out of it.

"Thank you. It's…perfect." Rory gave it a last good look. "What'd Mom think?"

"She said that it was weird that they didn't have a stove and then she nodded," He furrowed a brow. "I don't exactly know what that means…I was hoping you would fill me in."

She smiled, "It's perfect."

--

"Jess can be so cute."

Rory laughed, "Cute? I don't think he'd like to be thought as a stuffed animal."

Lane smirked, shrugging as she passed Rory the salt for her Hamburger. "Look at what he did for you and the baby. I mean, you have a place to live now. You guys are buying it and raising the baby together. Look at how much he's changed."

"He has," She nodded, taking a bite out of her meal. "For the better."

"So, what happened with Tristin?" Lane asked randomly.

Rory rolled her eyes, looking at Lane with a disapproving expression. "Lane Kim, how many times do I have to tell you that nothing happened and you are completely insane."

She sighed. "I am not completely insane. How come he doesn't come to Stars Hollow anymore?"

"We're taking a break," She shrugged it off.

"Is that code for we broke up?"

Rory stared at her friend pointedly. "I—yes. I think we did. It's because he's so jealous of Jess…like something's going on or something. I mean, he keeps on comparing himself to him and I find it bad."

Lane raised an eyebrow, "Is something going on with you and Jess? I mean, Tristin wouldn't have any reason to be jealous?"

"Lane!" She cried. "Of course not. I mean, I love him as a friend and as my baby's father but I am not _in love _with him. You would know that if you were around us when we're together."

"I don't want to watch you flirt."

She rolled her eyes, "We don't flirt."

Lane gave her a mock nod, she didn't believe a word of it. "Rory, stop being this naïve about Jess. You know how he can be about your relationship. I mean, he always wants more."

"He doesn't and I don't either."

"When has Jess ever been innocent?"

Rory sighed, looking around. Her eyes caught Jess on the other side of the diner, he looked back at her and smirked. She found herself blushing and then turned back to Lane. "Oh my god."

She smirked, "Ha. There you go."

"I don't like Jess, Lane. I can't like Jess…I blush easily."

Lane bit her upper lip to keep herself from laughing. "Tell me you don't love him."

Rory's eyes widened and she shook her head firmly. "I don't like him or love him…that way. Now, I wish that you would leave the subject alone."

"What do you want?"

Jess appeared in front of them two seconds later, eyeing Lane. She shrugged, looking over the menu with a smirk. "What's wrong with her?" He asked Rory, and she gave him an uneasy look.

"Nothing," She replied quickly. "Um, can I have a milkshake?"

"Coming right up."

Lane gave her a quick smile before returning to her menu.

"I need to find myself a man." Lorelai declared as she entered the diner.

Rory stared at her pointedly. "You do know that this is Luke's diner, right?"

She shrugged, grabbing a French fry from her daughter. "He's never here now anyways. I know nothing about his life and I'm feeling lonely." She turned to Rory. "Keep me company, Darling."

"No thanks, Darling. Why don't you talk to Luke?"

Lorelai frowned, "I don't want Luke."

Lane leaned in and scoffed, laughing. "Rephrase that."

"I don't!" She protested. "Luke is out of my life forever. And see, it all works out because he's never here anyway…and it doesn't bother me at all that he might be with another woman right now doing dirty things…not at all."

"I think you'd be the only woman in the world that would fall for Luke," Jess pointed out, while he passed by.

Rory shook her head, "Nicole?"

He sighed. "She was a lawyer. You find me someone who will willingly spend time with the grump."

"Who's this talking?" Lorelai rolled her eyes as she turned to her daughter and Lane. "Luke hasn't found a woman, right? You don't think that he met someone and then he left his old life behind as he didn't find a need for Stars Hollow anymore and right now he's in Alaska eating Ice Cones with the penguins?"

"That would be really impossible, since he's right across the street, fighting with Taylor," Rory smiled, pointing out the window. "Plus, I don't think that Luke would marry an Eskimo. _And _I don't think Taylor has passed the law for Eskimos to come to Stars Hollow…some law about them sweating all over the town green because they have the big jackets."

Lorelai's eyes immediately followed Rory's hand as she saw Luke picking a fight with Taylor in front of the Gazebo. She deeply inhaled a breath and then turned back to the girls. "He looks happy."

Lane rubbed Lorelai's arm soothingly. "He's only happy because he just kicked Taylor in the shin."

"I'm hopelessly lonely," Lorelai sighed, dropping her head.

Her daughter bit her lip. "Hey, hopelessly lonely, I think you should get out of here because Luke is heading this way."

She eyed the door and saw that she was right before picking up her purse. "Now, I'm being kicked out from Luke's? Ugh. I'm hopelessly lonely _and _hungry."

Rory laughed, "Hey, you can go upstairs and then I could send Jess upstairs to bring you food."

Lorelai kissed her daughter's forehead, shaking her head. "Nah. I'll just make a less than graceful escape. Bye, Darling."

"Wait, uh--," Rory tried calling after her but she was already out the door. She sighed and knelt down to pick up her mother's cellphone that had fallen. She examined it closely and saw that there was one new message.

Lane looked at the phone curiously. "Hey, you're her daughter. Listen to it."

Rory smiled mischievously at her friend as she pressed the button to listen to the messages.

"_Lorelai. Lorelai Gilmore."_

The message started and Rory recognized Luke's voice. Drunk voice.

"_This is Luke, you know the guy that you stomped all over at the party? Is it true that you want me to tell you that I love you? Well, here. I love you. Hmm…now, tell me that you will listen to this message and then run into my arms. Nope, 'cause you won't. It's all one excuse after the other, Lorelai. Now, I may be drunk, but I can still see right through you. You just don't want to be with me. Say it. You want to run straight into the arms of--,"_

Rory cut off the message by clicking the 'end' button. She blinked, running a hand through her hair. Luke drunk? Luke leaving a drunken message on her mother's phone? Was that the same guy that was about to come and greet them at his diner?

She turned to Lane, swallowing hard. "Did you hear that?"

"How did your mom not see the message?"

Rory pursed her lips together, a horrible feeling lying in the bottom of her stomach. "The cellphone was off. And he left the message last night, so, I don't think that she had time…"

"Rory!"

She turned her head to look at a smiley Luke at the door. "Hey," She tried to sound as pleasant as she could. "Um, what are you doing here? You haven't been by for a while."

Luke shrugged, "I think I'm going to start re-appearing."

Lane gave him a fake smile. "Jess was being rude to your costumers. So, I guess it was time for you to come back."

"I don't think he's going to be much better," Kirk put his input into the conversation. "Luke gets violent…but Jess has that scowl that scares me."

"Shut up, Kirk," Luke rolled his eyes.

Rory slid Lorelai's cellphone into her own purse while the conversation went on. She simply smiled as she stood up. "Well, we finished eating so I guess we'll go."

They were both out of the diner before Luke could even respond or offer anything. Rory simply waved to Jess, as if saying that she would be back. She sighed, the spring air making her cheekbones to turn red in the windy weather.

"What are you going to do?"

She crossed her arms over her chest, shrugging. "I have to tell her, don't I? I mean, I don't want her to get hurt or anything but I don't want to keep her out of the loop on anything that has to do with Luke."

Lane gave her a sympathetic look. "Tough decision. It's hard to think of how Lorelai would be happier right now…with or without Luke?"

"And I'm supposed to be the one that decides the future of her relationship?" Rory cried, exasperated.

"Hey, you could just let her discover the message herself and then she could decide herself….unless, your getting the itch to play the Rory that chooses what's best for her mom," She stated, tucking her short hair behind her ears.

Rory let her eyes wander the streets, as if searching for an answer somewhere. But, all that she saw were the same people that she saw every day. Then, suddenly, her eyes dropped on a certain black-haired beauty entering Luke's diner. "Oops."

Lane looked in the direction that her eyesight was leading and her own eyes widened. "Is that Julia?"

She groaned, her stomach jumping a bit. "Why can't my life be normal?"

"Are her and Jess broken up?"

Rory bit her lip as she examined the pretty girl as she flirted with her child's father. Then, a rush to those years that she had in High School, brought a wave of jealousy across her already jumbled stomach. "I don't know," She looked down. "I wish I knew."

--

A/N: Okay, since Rory is almost due. I need for you to take a vote on whether you want a girl or a boy. : ) I'm too wishy-washy to decide by myself.

Thanks!


	15. Confusion

A/N: Wow. I'm so happy that this muse hit me so soon. I thought that it would happen like last time, where I was completely blank. Anyway, I hope that you enjoy the update.

Now go read.

(BTW, Just because I was evil with the ending doesn't mean that you don't have to review. So, review plz!)

--

"We won't finish this," She ran a hand through her hair hysterically. "What if we don't finish this and then I give birth and then the baby will think that we are bad parents because we don't have a roof over it's head, what if that happens, huh?"

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "I don't think babies have that much time to think about if their parents finished redecorating their apartment or not. I think they have too much work on their hands with the pooping and sleeping."

Rory narrowed her eyes on her mother and shook her head, dropping on the couch. "When is Jess coming back?"

"He said that after he was done with his lunch that he would come by and help us with the heavy stuff. And he said that he'd bring Luke…now, can we freak out about that now?" She asked, biting down on her nails.

"Lunch?" Rory asked blankly.

She shrugged, "Yeah."

"Well, lunch with who?"

"I don't know. He didn't say…and why are we talking about this? Luke is coming over! How about that?"  
Rory shifted in her seat uncomfortably and placed a hand on her stomach. "He's with Julia. I just know it. God! And the day that we wanted him here the whole day so we could get this over with. You know, that bothers me. If he's going to be into the whole apartment thing then he has to be on time and he can't be out with his girlfriend, especially when I could go into labor in any second…I mean, how inconsiderate is that?"

"Hey," Lorelai looked at her daughter in concern. "What happened?"

She shook her head, rubbing her eyes from her eyes watering. "Nothing. I just think that he should be here."

"One minute your okay and then you're in tears."

Rory bit her lip, sniffling. "The doctor said that I'd be more sensitive than ever these last few weeks. Sorry."  
"Oh, babe. You want me to call him?"

She nodded silently and stood up to walk to the kitchen as her mom took out her cell phone. "Oh yeah, since you gave this to me yesterday…I forgot to ask if I had any messages." Lorelai looked through her caller ID. "Did I?"

Rory froze all of a sudden and looked up at her mother, her hair falling in her eyes. "Um, nope. No calls for you. It was pretty quiet."

"Never felt so loved in my life," Lorelai smirked, dialing the number. She paused for a couple of seconds and then started talking. "Jessaroo! How we doing? No, I'm not going to stop calling you. Hey, we miss you here. I mean, we don't have the muscles and the toned chests to be able to pick up all the pretty furniture. Now, Jess. Alrighty, Jessaroo. I'll tell our girl."

She hung up the phone with that and smiled at her daughter.

Rory tried to act as causally as she could as she drank the orange juice she had been getting. "So, what'd he say?"

"He's just getting Luke and then they'll be on their way."

"Right," She nodded, sitting down next to her mother. "While we're waiting, do you want to give it the girly touch?"

Lorelai looked at her daughter in surprise. "Really? You'll let me?"

"Your probably the only one that knows about that. Plus, I don't really know where I'm going to put the rest of the stuff," Rory shrugged. "I'm starting to feel weird about this."

"You mean moving in with Jess?" Lorelai chuckled. "It was bound to happen. The weirdness, I mean. You're a girl and he's a boy and then you only have two rooms and one bathroom. You have different routines and he has a girlfriend…and then with the baby it will get much more noisy."

Rory's eyes widened, hitting her mom on the head. "God, mom. I hadn't thought of all those things. Ugh. Thanks for that, now you have to get me thinking about how weird it's going to be living with…" Her eyes wandered off to behind Lorelai's head and she looked at her daughter with confusion.

"Trying to find the words there?"

"Grandma," Rory smiled, standing up.

Lorelai wrinkled her brow. "Emily? You're not living with--,"

"Hello Lorelai."

She turned her head to find her mother looking over her. "Oh, hi Mom. I didn't notice you there. You'd definitely be a good spy." She stumbled on her words awkwardly.

Emily gave her a weird look and then turned to Rory with a smile. "How are you doing? Aw, you look fabulous, Rory. I think that this baby is just giving you what you need."

"People say it's the glow," Rory shrugged, smiling broadly.

"Yeah, it was the grease on the pizza, mom." Lorelai joked, smirking.

She rolled her eyes, "Lorelai, please stop yourself from speaking anymore. Alright?" Emily narrowed her eyes onto her daughter as she nodded slowly. "So, what are we doing here?"

Rory glanced quickly at the tension between her grandmother and her mother before responding. "What am I doing here? Grandma, how did you find out about this place?"

"Well, your boyfriend, dear."

"Her what?" Lorelai looked at Rory in amusement.

Emily looked at Rory in confusion. "Tristin Dugrey, of course."

"Um," She looked down, not sure how she was going to break it to her grandmother. "Me and Tristin are taking a break for a little while. You know, things are getting very hard with the baby."

"Well, you'll be back together, right?"

Lorelai stood up from her seat and placed an arm around Rory. "I wouldn't count on it, Mom. I think the Tristin ship has sailed. So, just give her some space."

Rory nodded, "But, I'm still fuzzy on how he knew about the apartment."

"Well, how am I supposed to know?" Emily shrugged, looking at Rory in disappointment. "So, are you with that boy now?"

"Jess?" She asked in surprise. "No. Of course not. We're just living together because of the baby. I mean, I can't do it by myself and it would be good to have someone here for me." Rory put on her defense immediately.

"But you're living together?"

Lorelai looked at her daughter with worry. "Mom, can we please lay off the subject?" She received a grateful look from Rory. "So, do you want to sit down?'"

"Alright," Emily agreed and sat on the small chair that was in front of the couch. "You sure don't have much things here. You can't just leave it like this when the baby comes. It should be neat and tidy…you should also make the baby's room separate. Do you have any furniture?"

Rory bit her lip nervously. "Actually, me and Jess agreed that the baby would sleep with us."

"In the room?"

"Yup. We agreed that it would be better."

Emily shook her head. "Are you sharing a room? Because I don't think it would be good to change the baby from room to room. It can get exhausting."

She gave her a small smile, "We're making the baby a room, don't worry about it, Grandma. It'll all work out fine."

"Yes, I'm here to help, Mom. I have a lot of experience dealing with babies. I mean, with Rory and then Sookie's kids. I'm sure that they'll ask me for help if they need anything," Lorelai gave her mother a reassuring look.

"I actually had a thought about the baby today," Emily started. "I thought that we could re-apply the Friday Night Dinners. Even if we're not paying for Yale."

Rory placed her hand on her stomach, feeling a bit of movement. "Well, you are paying for Yale, Grandma. The Friday Night Dinners will start back up when I go back to Yale."

She shook her head again, firmly. "I have no contact with my family. I would like to get to know my Grandchild, if you don't mind. So, I would like some kind of gathering once a week."

"That might be a little hard to arrange. I mean, Rory and Jess will soon have a new baby on their hands. It will really be hard for them to make it."

"Then, Lorelai, why don't you come? Is there an excuse for you too?"

Rory and Lorelai looked a each other in hesitation. Rory finally looked at her Grandmother, decided. "I'm sure we could all arrange something. Would you like Jess to come too?"

Emily gave them a broad smile, "I have a solution. That Jess boy can stay with the baby every Friday and then the two of you could come to see Richard and me."

"But--," Lorelai started, trying to search for an answer in her head.

"No buts. I think I've given you a rather fair deal."

Rory gave her a small nod. "Mom, it couldn't hurt. We'll be there, Grandma."

Her face lit up as soon as she heard those words and she got up from her chair. "Thank you, Rory. I'm sure I'll see you next Friday, then. Goodbye, Lorelai." Emily gave Lorelai a shake of her head and walked out of the living room.

"How many times do I have to tell you that my mother is evil until you actually believe me? I'm sure she could play a part in Mars Attack if she wanted to," Lorelai sighed. "Now, we are committed to dinner with the devil."

Rory shrugged, "It won't be that bad."

"Won't be that bad? Have I taught you nothing, Child?"

"Luke, I swear to freaking god, you go on about this, and your next audience will be the skeletons dancing around your grave," They heard Jess's voice come from the doorway. "Oww! Just because I can't put this down and beat you up does not mean that I won't when I do."

Rory and Lorelai shared confused glares before standing up and walking to the doorway. "Jess!" Rory squealed when she saw that it was their 'favorite diner boys' at the doorway. "My books!" She took the large box from him and smiled. "Hi."

"Hey," Jess frowned.

She gave him a death glare. "I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to my books." She glanced at Luke who was standing awkwardly next to him. "Hey."

"Hello, Rory."

"And I suppose you were talking to your books then too?" Jess rolled his eyes.

Rory shook her head, kicking him in the shin. "No, that time I was talking to Luke," She glanced over at him again. "Come in. Mom, why don't you show Luke around the apartment?" Lorelai sent a pleading look at her daughter but nodded stiffly.

She crossed her arms over her chest and gave a look to Luke. "Come on."

"Rory, give me the books," Jess tried to make a grab for the huge box. "You shouldn't be carrying heavy things while your pregnant unless you want your kid's head to come out shaped as the encyclopedia." Rory shook her head firmly and stood her ground. "Dammit, Rory." He sighed taking the box out of her hands and setting it on the ground. When she tried to make a grab for them again, he lifted her up newly-wed like.

"What are you doing?"

"Leave the books."

She growled at him, "No. Jess, let go of me." When he wouldn't, her cries soon turned into giggle fits. "You'll have to let go of me sometime. I'm heavy now, and it's like carrying two people."

He shook his head and started walking towards the living room, dropping her on the couch. Lorelai and Luke were already sitting there awkwardly waiting for them. "Jess wouldn't let go," Rory pouted, but secretly smiling.

When they had all sat down in their seats an awkward silence filled the room. Lorelai and Luke had their eyes on their laps and it looked like they were super glued because they wouldn't look anywhere else. Jess gave Rory a confused look and she just shrugged.

"So.." Rory started, trying to start conversation. "Mom, did you show Luke around the apartment?"

This time, Luke spoke. "Yeah," He nodded. "It's great, Rory. Just perfect."

"I found it," Jess muttered, a sly smirk playing on his face.

They all gave Jess a death glare at the same time and he lifted his hands up in surrender. Lorelai sighed, bitting her lip. "So, what are we doing here? Let's get up and work before the baby pops right out of her."

Rory nodded excitedly, standing up slowly, careful not to bump her stomach. She placed an arm around her mother and smiled. "I think we're going to give the living room to a feminine touch...so, you guys can work on one of the bedrooms."

"How can we do that if we don't know who is going to sleep in which room?" Jess asked, running a hand through his hair. "Rory, what do you pretend to do?"

"We'll give you a second while I'll just start on the bookshelf," Luke said awkwardly, walking out the door.

Lorelai looked at both of them, still with her teeth chewing at her bottom lip. "I think I'll go too..." She drifted off, walking off into the hallway. When she entered the room where Luke was settled, she could already hear the arguing. She cleared her throat, "Um."

Startled and stupidly, Luke dropped the piece of wood in his hands onto his foot. "Damn!" He exclaimed, sitting on the floor. He rubbed his temple in pain and sighed.

She shrieked and got down on the floor next to him. "Are you okay? I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine. You know, I'm a klutz," He shrugged, looking at her. "So, I thought that you were going to stay in there. I didn't think that you would want to–I mean, it's not like you seemed like you wou–,"

"Luke," Lorelai smiled, interrupting him. "I want to be able to talk."

"Oh. Good."

"Yeah, I thought so."

They shared a knowing look before both looking down at the wooden floor. Her eyes watered at the thought of the last time she had been alone with Luke. And then those thoughts lead her to the reason that they had broken up. She shook her head, pursing her lips together.

Luke looked at her with concern in his eyes. "Lorelai. What is it?"

"I can't do this, Luke." Lorelai sniffled, wiping her eyes slowly. "It just hurts so much that the way that we did this...it wasn't fair to me. I'm usually really good about this."

"About what, Lorelai? I don't understand," Luke lifted her head up by placing his finger under her chin.

Lorelai looked up at him with her pool-blue eyes and gave him a pleading look. As if for him to stop her from doing anything stupid. But, it was too late, because before she could stop herself she lifted her head and kissed him softly. She placed both of her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss, letting him process everything and react.

His mouth was shaky under her's before he gained the consciousness to kiss her back. Before he knew it, she was on his lap and they were kissing full on. Luke placed his arms around her waist to make her more comfortable against his chest.

"Ehm."

They both looked up from their kiss and saw Jess standing in the door. They both gave him a guilty look and for the first time, Luke saw some anger in his eyes. "Don't try to explain, I don't need your explanation. But, at least get up before Rory finds you."

Jess turned on his heel and walked out of the room, leaving both adults to sit there in the position they had been in when he had walked in.

Lorelai stood up from Luke's lap, shakily, smoothing out her clothes. "Um, I gotta go take care of...that."

"Yeah, yeah. Okay."

She nodded and gave him a reassuring look before walking out into the hallway.

--

"I think that if you put this picture right here, on the mantle it would be better," Lorelai defended her case to Rory. "I mean, that way you can get a constant reminder that you love me so much that you would give up your life for me...and that I'm watching you."

Rory rolled her eyes, "What? Are you going to put a hidden video camera into the picture so it can pull a Mona Lisa."

"Why would you ever accuse me of something so horrible, Rory? I think that you have trust issues." Lorelai batted her eyelashes innocently. She chuckled at her daughter, "So, darling, when do you think we'll tell the boys to go home?"

She shrugged, "Well, this is mine and Jess's home now..."

"But your not going to sleep here on the first day that you I install the bed. It's barely all ready."

"I'm not, but I would rather hang around for a bit more," Rory gave her mother a nod, placing the photo that she had in her hands of both of them on the mantle. "But...you know, you can go if you want. I'm sure that Luke would give you a ride home if it isn't too weird for you."

Lorelai furrowed a brow, wondering how much she knew. "Why would it be weird?"

"Um, maybe because you guys had a pretty nasty break up." Rory frowned at her mother, looking at her with sympathy. "How's that going for you? I mean, it must be horrible seeing him again. You must get the urge to just start things up again."

She bit her top lip, a guilty feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Yeah."

"But, I know that you would never act on it...you wouldn't, right?"

Lorelai shook her head firmly, taking a big breath. "Rory, no. Would you react badly to it?"

Rory didn't look at her mother, but her eyes roamed around the apartment where her eyes lit up. Lorelai looked over to where she was looking, and it was Jess in the doorway once again, grinning at her. "Honey, I think I'll go talk to Luke about going home, then. You and Jess could go home in my jeep if you want. Have fun." She kissed her daughter's forehead, hugging her side. "Love you."

Rory looked up at her mother and smiled. "Thanks, Mom."

"Never a problem, Kid."

With that, Lorelai was out the door and it left Rory and Jess in the living room alone again. She tucked some loose hairs behind her ears and walked over to him. "So, hard work, huh?" Rory giggled, looking at his sweat stained T-Shirt. "Gross. Take a shower please."

"Yeah. About that, you might want to call the plumber...we had a bit of a problem with the pipes."

"What kind of problem?" She crossed her arms over her chest, glancing at him narrowly.

He smirked, "The kind where I hit something I wasn't supposed to, and then we got to see parts of Luke under his transparent shirt that should never be shown to humanity ever again."

Rory shook her head, amused. "I'll call the plumber in the morning." She dropped herself onto the couch with a 'thump' before patting the seat next to her's. Jess did as he was asked and placed a hand on her knee. "Hey, Mister, I'm not that kind of girl."

Jess raised an eyebrow, "Oh, I'm sorry." He slid his hand up her thigh. "That better?"

"So not funny," She gave him the evil eye before taking his hand off her thigh. Even the thought of him having his hand anyway in contact with her skin have her goose bumps. "Hi." She looked at him with a goofy grin on her face. "I remember the first time Luke caught us kissing up in the apartment."

"The first of many times."

"Yup," She nodded. "Hey, I was traumatized. Luke was like a father figure to me and him finding me kissing his nephew was so embarrassing. God, I wanted to kill myself."

Jess shrugged, smirking. "He didn't actually find us kissing. We pretty much parted when he came in."

"Still..."

"I guess all of the built up sexual energy went into that day you went touring Yale."

Rory groaned, not liking that day. Well, at least most of it. "God, that day was awful. Not that the kiss was awful. It was good but I mean, that day...I felt like I didn't want to go to college anymore. It was that painful of an experience for me."

"So, the kisses were...not awful?"

"Better than not awful." Rory smirked.

Jess shook his head, a sly look in his eyes. "Ahh...so, the truth finally comes out. Rory Gilmore is infatuated with Jess Mariano's kisses and touches. And the fact that she doesn't get to make passionate love to me every single day of her life kills her. It's alright, we'll get you through this."

She rolled her eyes, giving him a slap on the head. "Well, that must be why I am having your baby."

"And why else?"

"Because your such a jerk, maybe," Rory laughed, resting her head on the armrest and swinging her legs onto his lap. "What do you think of the apartment so far? I think it's just what we needed...I mean, it's so...us."

Jess played with the bottom of her skirt and grinned."We have a look?"

"I think we should sell it to the little people...because look at this place, I mean...there's no place like home."

They nodded at each other and took a look around the apartment. Rory jumped up in surprise when her phone vibrated in her pocket. She sat up, taking it out of there forcefully. "Hello?"

"Rory."

She smiled, bitting her lip. "Dean, hey. Why are you calling?" She could see that Jess was already scoffing and ready to make those apron and camping jokes. Rory shook her head at him and kicked him softly before starting to walk around the room.

"Um, I have some news..."

"Really? Well, I'm intrigued."

"Lindsay and I...well, we're moving. And I know what your going to say, 'what about college?' and where would we live or stuff like that," Dean huffed. "But, I think that this time this is the right decision. I mean, there's a small community college across the way of the town house that we're buying and then it would be perfect for us to start a family."

Rory chocked on her words. "Start a family?"

"Well, we might consider it once I get out of college."

"Wow, Dean," Rory sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I'm surprised. And no, I'm not going to give you a lecture or anything. I just want to let you know that I'm proud of you and that I think this would be good for the two of you. You know, to get out of Stars Hollow."

"You do?"

She raised an eyebrow, "I can be supportive when I want to. Sorry if I have freaked out in the past. It's just...you can do more and I mean, I felt like Lindsay was stopping you from doing exactly that. It kind of scared me, Dean. Because I've known you my whole life and I just want the people around me to do good in the world."

"Hopefully I'll live up to your potential."

"I don't doubt it."

"Thanks, Rory. For everything. We'll definitely stay in touch and I'll keep you updated on everything. Lindsay wants that too. It's not like she thinks that you're a bad friend for suggesting the me doing more part."

Rory shrugged, "Lindsay's nice. Call me when you get to the house and make sure to e-mail me the address and phone number. I want to at least know when little Deans are running around in the world."

"Hey, even though I'm not too thrilled with a bunch of clones of Jess running around Stars Hollow...let me know so we can visit you in the hospital. Maybe I can be Uncle Dean?" He suggested.

"Only if I'm Aunt Rory."

"Deal," There was a small pause in the conversation until Rory heard a rustling noise. "Um, I have to go. Sorry. I'll call you, okay?"

Rory smiled, glad that they ended on good terms in this conversation. "Yeah. Good luck, Dean." She ended the conversation and then looked back at Jess who was looking at her with interest. "Sorry 'bout that," Rory smirked, sitting back down.

"What'd he want?"

"God, don't sound so friendly, Jess," Rory rolled her eyes. "He just wanted to tell me that him and Lindsay were moving out of Stars Hollow and into a town house. It's good, actually. For them."

Jess shrugged, "About time they got out of there. I think we're completely crazy in moving into this place in the first place...but, at least we have a reason. Now, staying here just because you feel like seeing Taylor every day is not healthy."

"Aww...and when you were getting pleasant."

"I'm never pleasant," He frowned.

She shook her head, thinking otherwise as she walked to the kitchen. "I think your softening up just a bit," She replied while she opened the fridge. "You want something to drink?"

Jess stood up from the couch too and walked over to her, examining the refrigerator. "I can cook us something if you want. I may not be the best of cooks, but at least it's better than tortilla chips and cocoa puffs."

"Hey, that was inventive of me!"

"And completely disgusting," He rolled his eyes, secretly smirking. "Now move out of the way so I can make us some _edible _food."

"Now, that's no fun."

He chuckled as she moved out of his way and he took out a couple of pieces of bread. She looked at him with a furrowed brow. "I'm making French Toast. I know that's what you've been craving lately. So, don't complain." Rory held her hands up in surrender and watched him while he cooked.

Rory's eyes went all over him while he cooked. The way he used his hands so skillfully, like he had been doing that all his life, it was amazing to her. She had never remembered ever watching Jess cook. Or eating Jess's food at all when they were together. Sometimes she thought that the relationship that they had now was much better than all of the drama they had gone through over the years. But, there was something that didn't make that statement completely true.

Because the way he acted before really didn't matter to her at the moment just remembering what those days that were special. The days that were like a snowflake and that they would hold hands and walk around the town square. And the way he leaned in and brushed his lips against her ear, making her heart speed up more than it already had. It made her shiver at the moment, watching him like this. It scared her that she was having these thoughts.

Jess turned around, looking at her with a wide grin. She looked at him with curiosity and studied his face. She loved the way that his lips weren't perfect but yet so inviting. She stopped her blue eyes right at his lips and moved forward. He looked at her in surprise as she placed a warm hand on his cheek.

He looked down at her and took a hair out of her face to put it aside. She closed her eyes, giving into that warmness. When she did open her eyes she could see him leaning in farther and she felt her stomach do flips.

One more second, she told herself.

"Oww." She knocked her head against him stupidly, clutching her stomach.

He rubbed his forehead, looking at her with concern. "Rory, what is it?"

She looked up at him and then looked at his shoes. He followed her gaze and then saw that a transparent liquid had completely soaked his shoes. She bit her lip and started breathing deeply.

Jess's eyes widened as he watched her and then looked down at his shoe again. "Rory, I think your water just broke on my shoe." He cursed at himself and cringed. "Rory."

Rory exhaled deeply, and took a hold of his hand. "Help."


	16. The Baby

Disclaimer: Nope. Do not own.

A/N: First of all, thank you for all of the reviews. And I know that I have been evil making you wait so long for this chapter. Especially a chapter as important as this one.

Now, the vote that we had for how many people wanted a girl or how many people wanted a boy…I didn't take that into consideration when I chose the gender of the baby. And it wasn't pointless because I got to hear your opinions, which is the only one that matters.

I did my best on this chapter. So, please review and make me happy.

--

The waiting room was filled to the brim. If an ant had walked into that waiting room, it would actually leave because it would be too crowded. Not that Rory and Jess wanted it this way, but Ms. Patty overheard Lorelai's phone conversation and that landed Rory and Jess in visitors every two seconds. It made Rory not even want to think of what would happen when she had the baby.

She sucked on the ice that the nurse had brought her, impatiently. "Jess," She mumbled incoherently, her mouth filled with two ice cubes.

"Hm?" He looked up, snapping out of whatever trance he was in.

Rory rolled her eyes, "Open the door."

She was right; whoever was at the door was getting impatient because the knocking had only become louder. He got up from his chair and opened the door slowly. Christopher walked in quickly, completely ignoring him. "Honey! Are you alright?"

She placed a hand on the bottom of her stomach. "Ouch. Not that good."

"I met up with your mother in the waiting room right outside, and the whole town seems to be there or out in the halls," Chris took a deep breathe. "What happened? I only heard Rory and hospital in the same sentence and then I just bolted."

"Well, my water broke..."

"On my shoe," Jess interrupted, sending a glare at Rory.

"What, Jess? Would you rather be sitting her with a baby coming out of you? I mean, I'm sure that having goo on your feet is way worse than the unbearable pain that I'm in right now," Rory snapped.

Chris interrupted them by putting his hand up. "Wait. Your having the baby?"

She nodded, not being able to say anything as she grabbed Jess's hand and made a groaning noise. He looked at her in concern, the anger fading and let her squeeze his hand. Chris smiled at the interaction and nodded. "Well, I think I should go back out there. Good luck, Baby."

Rory bit her lip and looked up at her father with the best expression that she could put on her face. When the contraction ended, she let out a sigh and kept her hand locked with Jess's. "I wish people would stop coming in here. I love my dad and all...but, I'm having a baby here."

"You can stop worrying about that, I won't let anyone in anymore."

"Only mom," She replied, eyeing the door.

Jess sighed, letting go of her hand and running a hand through his messy hair. "Do you want me to call Lorelai in? I mean, I can go and Lorelai can sit through this with you..."

Rory furrowed a brow, "Do you want to leave? Is this horrible for you?"

"No. I was thinking about you."

"I admit, it is a little weird not having Mom in here...but, I wouldn't want you to feel like your less important just because she's in the room," Rory explained quickly. "Jess, you're it's Dad and you should have a VIP pass, you know."

Jess shook his head. "I'll go get her. I have nothing against your mother, and I already have a VIP pass, as long as I'm sitting right here, I'm good."

"Honestly? It doesn't freak you out?"

He rolled his eyes, getting up again. "I'll go get her." She watched him go out the door and into the crowded waiting room. Jess looked at everyone surrounding him. It was so packed that Kirk's knee was touching his leg.

"Kirk? What are you doing here?"

Kirk crossed his arms over his chest and gave him an easy expression. "I heard that if you got here first you got a seat out here and you didn't have to stand out in the hallway like Lane and the band had to. Nurse said that only eighteen people could fit in here..."

His eyes wandered around the room and he saw almost everybody from Stars Hollow. He narrowed his eyes on Luke. "Um, do you know where Lorelai is?"

"She's–," He started, but Babette cut him off.

"Oh, Honey, she's outside talking to Emily and Richard. Apparently, some kind of fight about some dinner," She pointed to the door.

He was quick to get out of the chaotic room and walked out into the hallway. There were less people, but it was still a bunch of town people standing around. He sighed and walked over to Lorelai. "What are you doing out here?"

Lorelai shrugged. "Um, thinking...you know."

"Well, Rory wants you."

"She wants me? But I thought that you were going to be in there by yourself," She pointed out, confused.

Jess sighed and ran a hand through his hair, shifting uncomfortably. "Lorelai, I don't know. Just come and be with your daughter. Unless you want me to tell her that you were too busy 'thinking.'" He didn't want to be there. Talking to her. There were too many things that Lorelai had done that could potentially hurt Rory.

"No. I'm coming."

She put down her coffee and followed Jess into the hospital room. Rory was laying on the bed, breathing deeply again. Jess took his place next to her bed and took her hand. Lorelai hovered around the bed, looking at her daughter, beaming. "Hon."

"Mom," Rory choked out, sweat all over her face.

Lorelai walked over next to her head and laid a hand on her daughter's cheek, bending down to kiss her forehead. "You're doing great, Babe. I'm sure that the catcher will be here with the glove soon."

"Not funny."

She smirked, "It kind of is."

Jess interrupted the bonding by clearing his throat. "Um, do you want more ice cubes?"

Before the meaningful question could be answered, a doctor and a couple of nurses walked in swiftly. Lorelai looked up at the doctor and blushed. Rory could only roll her eyes. "Doctor." Lorelai smiled at him and placed an hand on his arm.

"Mom," Rory warned.

"Alright, alright. Sorry, George Clooney." She patted his shoulder. "So, what does it look like?"

The doctor looked around the room. "We're very close now. But I must ask, who's the father here?"

"Present," Jess muttered, sitting up.

"And who's going to be here during the birth of the baby?"

Everyone looked at each other and Rory was the first to speak up. "Um, how many people do you recommend? Because it would be fine to just have Jess with me, but she is my mom...and it's times like these when you want to scream out, 'Mommy!'"

The doctor chuckled, "Indeed."

Lorelai gave a quick glance to Jess and then to Rory. "Honey, I think I'm going to wait outside. It's yours and Jess's shining moment. I don't want to feel like a third wheel. You're going to do great, trust me."

"Are you sure?" Rory asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

"Babe, I will be in here when the kid is here and I will be so happy...but I think you need to do this by yourself," Lorelai kissed her daughter again and then gave the doctor a reassuring look. "Take care of my baby, okay?"

"We'll try to do just that, Ms. Gilmore," He nodded.

Lorelai smirked at his formality, "Alright. Well, I'll be right out there. Jess, Rory, George Clooney. Good luck." She mouthed an 'I love you' to her daughter and then stepped out the door.

Now that Lorelai was out of the room, Jess sat up and grabbed Rory's hand again. She looked a bit confused about how he was acting, but didn't comment on it. The doctor smiled at them and then looked over his chart. "Melinda, can you please bring Mr. Mariano a robe to change into? The mask and the hat, also. Thank you."

The petite nurse nodded and ran out the door quickly.

"You have to wear a robe too," Rory looked at him in amusement. "I was starting to feel weird."

Jess smirked, "At least I get to keep my underwear."

She rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest. A sudden pain hit her with force and she grabbed Jess's arm, making it turn white from the lack of blood. The doctor looked at Rory and gave her a soothing look. "Yes, we're almost there. Um, Anthony?"

A bulky man had a rolling bed ready for her and Jess helped her gently onto the other bed. Then, Melinda walked into the door in a hurry and handed him the robe. Jess held it in his hands and watched Rory being wheeled into the hallway. He quickly followed after her, putting the articles of clothing little by little as he walked.

"Jess," She panted, reaching out as if she were looking for his hand.

He bit his lower lip and caught up to them, giving her his hand again. "I'm here. Don't worry about it." She nodded, and let out a loud moan. "We're actually doing this," He mumbled to himself, calming himself down slightly.

"Ms. Gilmore," When they entered the room, the doctor was putting on his gloves as the nurses settled her in. "Breath deeply."

"I'm trying," She snapped, huffing.

Jess walked up to her and sighed. "Uh–,"

She shook her head firmly, confusing him entirely. "Stay by my head. I don't want you fainting in the middle of the birth. Now, stay here or I will be forced to castrate you."

"Woah," He raised an eyebrow and turned to the doctor. "Is she supposed to be this way?"

"We encourage it." He chuckled.

Jess looked at her again and Rory had nothing to do but squeeze his hand. She licked her dry lips and hung her head back. "Um, Doctor, I don't think that we should be doing this. The pain stopped, see." She breathed deeply.

"It's alright to be nervous, Ms. Gilmore," The doctor assured her, nodding as he put on his gloves.

She shook her head, "I'm not nervous…it's just, look, I'm not in pain anymore. See, I'm alright. I can go now. I mean, what am I still doing here?"

"Rory," Jess exclaimed, placing a hand on her stomach. "Stop it. Your acting hysterical. Now, we are having this baby…and this is the moment that we've been waiting to happen for a long time."

"Your not the one having this baby," She let a few tears of pain fall from her eyes. But, you could barely distinguish it from sweat. "You don't know what it feels like. I don't want to do this."

Her legs now positioned in the way that she would be sitting for the birth, the doctor sighed and let the nurse put a mask on him. "Ms. Gilmore, after you have this baby, you won't be sorry."

"No. I am sorry, I don't want to do this," She felt her throat ache from holding back the tears. "I didn't have a choice. I want to take it back."

Jess sent a look to the doctor, and he only nodded. "Don't worry, Mr. Mariano. This is completely normal."

"Don't talk about me like I'm not in the room!"

"Rory, we're not--," Jess started.

She broke into sobs and shook her head. "No! Stop it. Don't talk to me right now, I just want to…" She stopped her sentence to let out a cry.

"Ms. Gilmore, I'm going to need you to push."

"No, I can't. I can't. Jess…" She let out a groan and took his hand quickly. "Make it stop. I don't want this, I mean it."

The doctor now threw a look of panic to the nurse. "This baby will come whether you want it to or not. Now, I know you would rather it be alive rather than dead. I know you would. Now, please. We just need you to give us a push and the pain will be gone soon."

Rory turned red for a second and then gave him a small nod, tears coming down her red cheeks. Jess nodded also, "Do what the doctor says. I'm right here."

She gave them both a painful look before doing her best to push.

"Ms. Gilmore, try to push a little harder. We want to see the head."

Rory choked on her tears for a second before pushing as hard as she could. The pain would be gone soon. She needed to concentrate. She could see the doctor's face become pleased behind her foggy eyes.

"Okay, we're getting somewhere here. Give me one more push."

"You said the pain would be gone, it's not. I can't—I can't push anymore. It's too hard," She shook her head stubbornly. But, then, she turned to Jess's pale face. His brown eyes filled with worry. That was the only thing in her head when she tried pushing again.

Again, she kept her eyes on him as she tried her hardest to end the pain. End the feeling that she was having. Stop the tears. Have a baby. Whatever her motivation was, it was her cause, and all she could do was push until she was sure that she heard a cry.

Until then, this was her mission.

A fresh wave of pain overcame her once again, but she didn't let it get the best of her. She inhaled sharply and then gave another push. She honestly couldn't continue for much longer, she was so out of breath already. But, it seemed like she didn't need to.

She heard some kind of scream of joy and then small cries in the middle of all the noise.

Her chest heaving up and down, she tried her best to move her head to see what was happening. The doctor had a smile on his face as he approached her.

"Ms. Gilmore, you have a new member of your family."

She furrowed a brow, making herself understand as much as she could. "What?"

"You're a mother to a brand new baby boy."

Those words seemed to escape his mouth in slow motion, as she locked her eyes onto Jess's arms. In his arm's, was something that she least expected. A small baby, covered in a blue blanket.

She made herself stay awake, and smile as best as she could. "Jess."

Jess's expression looked frightened. Like a little five-year-old boy who just got scolded, and he thought it was the end of the world. But, it was different also. Because he looked at the baby in another way. He was trying his best to keep him from crying, but she bet, also to keep himself from crying also.

"Rory," He responded, and leaned forward, with the baby peeking out to see who was laying on the bed.

Before she could even get a good look at him, the doctor interrupted.

"Ms. Gilmore, we just need you to give us one last gentle push. Don't worry about it, it won't hurt."

So, the baby forgotten, she made herself give a small effortless push. The doctor nodded at her and smiled as he took off his gloves.

She didn't care about the doctor anymore, as she moved her head to try to see the baby again. Jess was now sitting down next to her, shifting the baby, who was still crying.

His voice was shaky. This tone of his voice was rarely seen. Only once had she heard it before. That night in her dorm room, when he had asked her to go away with him. "Do you want to hold him?"

She bit her lower lip, letting out a cry. "Him?"

"Him," He nodded, and she could see a little bit of a smile hiding behind his eyes as he watched the baby.

Rory reached out to touch the baby, almost as if he wasn't her's, he was some kind of forbidden fruit. She slightly touched his soft forehead and locked her eyes on the small lock of dark brown hair on his head. "I never thought that we would have a him."


	17. You Could Be Happy

Disclaimer: Nope, if I did, I wouldn't be as pathetic as writing some absurd story of a baby on a website, would I?

A/N: Next chapter is here. Let's throw a party. Except I'm mad at a lot of you for not reviewing when I know you're out there. So, just remember to at least stop to say 'hi.' I like to know there is someone out there in planet Earth.

--

She was sleeping.

Jess watched her sleep silently, as if it would be some kind of sin to make a sound and see those angelic eyes. He rubbed his temples and leaned back into his chair. He wouldn't leave. He would resist the urge to run out of the hospital and find somewhere else to be. He would resist the urge to say goodbye.

Because he made a promise. And he loved her. One way or another.

His eyes roamed the room and he was almost relieved to see that the nurse hadn't granted Rory's wishes to put the baby in the room. He wouldn't be able to take that. It was all too much. The baby. Rory. What had he done to her?

"_You regret it," Her voice didn't sound the same now that he had taken her innocence from her. She wasn't the same now. Because of him. "You regret it and your going to leave, aren't you?"_

_He inhaled as deeply as he could as he grabbed his shirt from the table. "I didn't say that, Rory. For god's sake…see what I mean. Your still thinking about it." He locked his eyes to her's, and she immediately looked away._

_Her voice cracked at that point, "About what?"_

"_The fact that there's always the possibility that I might walk out that door."_

"_You make us sound like an old married couple. When we've only had one night together. Really together."_

_He hated the way she sounded now. It made him think about the way she used to be. When she used to be afraid to say no or look at him in the eye. And not because she was ashamed of what they had just done, but because there was the small crush lingering in the air._

"_Rory, I never agreed to a relationship."_

"_Can't we figure this out here? What is the problem with Stars Hollow? Everyone has been so nice to you but you had to make everyone hate you. That's the problem."_

"_We're talking about something that happened years ago."_

_She looked at him again, but her short hair was covering most of her blue eyes. Her lips were swelled up and her mascara was all over her eyes. "It's not forgotten. So, don't tell me that you don't care about it. You think the town isn't good enough for you."_

"_That's not why I won't live here with you."_

"_Then why?"_

_He shook his head, now it was his turn to be hurt. "You were going to say no, Rory. Last night, I asked you to come with me. You thought that if you gave me something that you never wanted to before, then I would stay."_

"_It wasn't a bribe, if that's what your insinuating."_

"_I'm not insinuating anything, I just think you should have thought about what would have happened if it didn't work," He sighed. He didn't even know why he had continued when she had told him that she had told him that she loved him. Because it wasn't true. She just wanted someone._

"_If what didn't work? I didn't have a plan. I do love you."_

"_And I don't believe you."_

_She had tears in her eyes now; she used her hand to button up her shirt and stood up. "So, what? You sleep with me and then you don't want me? You knew that I was going to ask you to stay. You knew it! But, you kept on going. I can't take this back."_

_That hurt. He was sure of that. But, he didn't let that stop him. Stop him from doing whatever he was doing. "See. You do regret it. I just ruined the one thing that could have been good for you."_

_She took a step toward him, and he was almost sure that he had to step back. Before she tempted him to stay. "It was good for me, Jess. And that's one thing I'm sure of. I know it wasn't awkward. It was one of those moments that were exactly how I had pictured them."_

_His eyes became cold just then. "What? On your dorm's wood floor? Where you were cold and uncomfortable. And I just let it happen. I didn't think."_

"_I did! I thought of everything when I told you I loved you. And when I let you. I thought that was what you wanted."_

"_Well, right now it isn't."_

"_You don't want me?" Her voice was hysterical now. She was throwing her arms around, and wiping the tears away. "I thought that would never happen. You know, you were my only one. I didn't date anyone else for a year, Jess! I didn't think about anything else."_

"_That's not true," He shook his head furiously. "I can't be more important to you than you are to me. Rory, there is nothing more in this world than you."_

"_Then why can't we do this? Why can't we try to do this crazy thing called a relationship?" She moved until she made sure that she could reach out and touch him. She grabbed one of his hands and intertwined their fingers._

_Her breath was tingling on his lips. She leaned forward and brushed her lips against his'. And then again, letting him explore her mouth with his tongue. When he had his hand on the back of her head, she pulled away and placed her hands on his chest._

"_It's still 22.8 miles, Jess," Her voice made him shiver, and he could see the goose bumps on the side of her arm. He ran his rough hand across her back and closed his eyes._

_But, as he walked out the door minutes later, he could hear her yelling and screaming. Throwing things at the wall and making useless attempts to hurt him._

_It was all he heard as he closed the door made sure that she didn't go after him, by walking at a quick pace down the hallway. Because he knew that if he saw her again, he would have to apologize. And he didn't want to give her the opportunity to point out that she was sorry and she loved him. Because then he would break down finally. It was what he was craving at that moment._

_To let go._

"Hi."

And then again, he jumped in his chair to see Rory's tired eyes greeting him. He nodded at her and moved his chair closer to her. "Hey, you look shaken up. Are you okay?" She asked, furrowing a brow in concern.

"I should be asking you that question," Jess tried his best to smirk. That would make her think it's okay. "You're the one that just had the baby."

She nodded; obviously the thought hadn't gotten through yet, because she changed the subject quickly. "Not really. I mean, it was all really blurry to me actually." Pause. "Have you seen Mom? Last thing I remember is the nurse telling me that someone was here to see me. I thought it might have been Mom."

"It _was_ your mom and Luke. You were pretty much unconscious, so, after they saw the baby, they left me to take care of you."

"You don't need to be here, Jess. Really. You must be exhausted."

"I just need some fresh air, and then I'll be fine." He shrugged nonchalantly, sitting up straight. "You know what, I should go do that now. Unless you need me to sit here with you."

"Of course not. I'm a big girl. I'm sure I have a million people that want to see me. So, you can start sending some in."

"Okay. I'll tell them to come in two at a time so you don't get bombarded."

He gave her one last look before exiting the hospital room and telling everyone that she was awake. Jess pretty much avoided questions and made his way to the hallway. There, Lane was asleep on Zach's lap, and Lorelai was talking to the doctor with a smile on her face.

"Lorelai," He cleared his throat, and threw a look to the doctor. "I'm sorry, I already forgot your name."

"Doctor Jacobs," Lorelai replied for him, nodding. "Is Rory okay?"

Jess nodded, trying to keep his voice the same as he spoke. He was sure that he wasn't okay. And if one more person said Rory's name, he would officially run away screaming. "Yeah, yeah. She's seeing the paparazzi now. You know."

"Hey, I wouldn't joke about that. Taylor already told the Stars Hollow Gazette that Baby Gilmore would be on front page. He still doesn't agree on using your name."

He rolled his eyes, "Understandable."

Lorelai seemed to see behind his easy expression. She shifted her weight to her other leg and then looked at the doctor. "Um, can you excuse us a second, Doc? I just need to talk to Jess." He nodded and left them both to talk.

She immediately looked at him with a worried expression. "If Rory is okay, what are you doing out here?"

"I needed some air." He saw her eye his pocket.

"Oh, yes, fresh air. With a big puff of smoke in the middle of the nice and even breathing," Lorelai made a grab for the ciggerate pack, but he pulled away. "You know, you should really quit those. It's bad for the baby."

He shrugged, taking the pack out of his pocket. "You can have it. I wasn't going to smoke it anyway." And they both knew it was a lie. Because his eyes were locked on the exit sign and he was clutching the pack in between his fingers.

"I don't smoke, but thank you." She took it from him and shoved it into her purse. "What were you thinking of doing when you 'went out for fresh air?' Were you going to leave, Jess? Because I can see that you clearly were not looking for a simple walk around the hospital."

"You don't know what I was looking for."

"Don't hurt her, Jess," Lorelai's eyes were a very dark shade of blue and she used them to warn him. "Don't be scared, and please don't bail. You promised Rory that you wouldn't do that. And if you need anyone to talk to, I'm right here."

"Oh yeah, I really want to talk to someone who I caught making out with my uncle _after _they broke up," He replied, their conversation was as if they were back to that first night. She was lecturing him on taking a beer from the fridge and he was throwing sarcastic responses her way.

Apparently, it was as if they hadn't made any progress at all.

"Jess, I know why you would be upset about that," Lorelai rubbed her temples and glanced over at Luke. He was sitting, looking at his shoes. "But it was a one time thing. We're not getting back together."

"Yes, because that's really healthy," Sarcasm dripped from his voice.

Lorelai crossed her arms over her chest and nodded. "I know I've made a mistake. And I talked to Luke about it. It'll turn out alright, and Rory won't have to know about it."

"I thought you didn't lie to her."

"I don't. But, I'm not looking to hurt her either."

Of course, that was it for him, because he nodded for one last time and made his way down the hall. He could hear Lorelai walking away also. But, now, he had nowhere else to go. He couldn't walk out of the hospital, because Luke and Lorelai were guarding that area. He sighed, walking at a faster pace.

People were walking by, either pregnant, or holding a newborn baby in their arms. And their expressions couldn't be mistaken. You could see that they were truly happy. And they couldn't wait to bring the baby home.

They spoke eagerly and sometimes even talked baby talk to the baby.

It made him turn the corner even faster, but what he found wasn't any better. A huge window. He knew exactly what was on the other side of the glass.

Uncertain, he slowly stepped in front of the window. There were different babies everywhere. Blue, pink, and yellow blankets covering each one of the little bodies.

His eyes roamed the room when he finally found what he was looking for. Who he was looking for.

They hadn't found a name. Not yet. So, it was simply, **Baby Gilmore/Mariano**. He leaned into the window and put his finger up to where he was. He wasn't crying anymore. He was looking around the room, with his eyes barely open. He remembered that a few weeks ago, Rory had told him that she had researched everything that happened the first week that the baby was finally home with them. He wasn't supposed to open his eyes until later.

But, he seemed pretty anxious to see the world. All of the other kids were screaming their heads of, and the nurse had to tend to every single one. But, not their baby. He was trying to move his hand in front of his face, or look to the side.

Jess found himself with a small smile on his face.

"Congratulations."

He turned to look at Richard, watching the small baby also.

He cleared his throat and nodded at Rory's grandfather. He had never actually had any interaction with Richard. But, he seemed friendly enough. "Thank you."

"Rory had never mentioned you," Richard spoke as loud as he had to, keeping his eyes on the babies. "She only mentioned you once when she told me and Emily that you were back. Didn't seem so happy about it."

"Well, hopefully, she has changed her opinion of me."

Richard nodded, pretty sure of it. "It's a beautiful baby you have there. Some good genes there. I'm sure he'll grow up wonderfully."

"Now, that's something I'm not sure of," Jess shook his head, turning his head, so, he wasn't looking at the baby anymore. Not when he was having this conversation. "Let's just say that me and Rory aren't the ideal parents."

"I don't believe that."

"Your right, I guess," Jess didn't look at Richard either. He couldn't allow himself to doubt himself anymore than he already did. Rory would know about it, then. Richard would tell her. "So, I guess I should just--,"

"Do you love her?" His eyes were now on Jess, and he wanted answers.

Jess, taken by surprise, raised an eyebrow. "Why would that matter?"

"I believe love is a big part of how you raise a child. If you don't have love then you don't have anything. I'm sure you and Rory will love the child very much. But I'm still worried about how much love you have for each other."

"Then stop being worried, because I think we can deal with our own stuff."

"With a child now? No, I don't think you can."

He looked at Richard and saw that he was the only one that had doubted them since they had the baby. Or maybe not the only one. Because he was sure that he was doubting it to. "You know what, I don't think so either."

"I had a feeling with the way you came out of that room," But Richard was grinning. As if it was something that was good news.

"Rory—she doesn't want this child. And I didn't give her a chance to choose. She _had _to do this, I laid this child on her just because I couldn't control myself for one night," He shook his head, glancing at the baby. "She could be in classes right now instead of sitting in a hospital bed."

"I'm not going to lie to you, that is true."

"Of course it's fucking true. She said it herself. She didn't have a choice and now she has to be a mother. And I even thought about leaving. If anything, that should be the last thing on my mind. Because everybody thought I had changed."

Richard shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Rory sounded pretty convinced about it."

Jess reached for his ciggerate in his pockets, but nothing was there. He wanted to yell out or curse the world. But, nothing was coming out. He was right in front of his child and Richard Gilmore. The last thing he should be doing is confessing.

He looked up at Richard's aged face. "Do you think I should leave?"

"Well, I can't decide something as important. But, remember, if you do leave. Do not come back. Because you know the pain that you have caused Rory and this town. Believe it or not, they all had false hope for you," He nodded, an easy expression on his face.

"I don't think I want to leave," Jess mused, looking down. It was like he was in a spinning wheel, and he couldn't choose when to get off. He badly wanted to please Rory and prove everyone wrong. But, he also wanted to leave it all behind. Because he wasn't a father, and it wasn't something he could fake.

"Then maybe you shouldn't."

He looked at him, angry, all of a sudden. "You know what, Mr. Gilmore? Your not exactly helping anymore."

"Well, then, maybe I should leave you to _think. _And don't worry, boy, I wont tell anyone else about the conversation we had today," The man seemed pretty honest about what he said as he walked down the hallway and disappeared around the corner.

Jess kicked the wall as soon as he was out of sight. "Dammit."

--

"I don't really know what I'm feeling."

Lorelai smiled at her daughter and nodded. She understood the feeling, it felt like yesterday that she had been sitting right in that bed. "You just had a baby, it's understandable."

Rory sighed and looked at her worn-out fingernails. She then looked at her stomach. She had lost a lot of weight now that the baby was out. She almost missed being able to touch something when she reached up. "I still can't believe it."

"You're under the shock."

"I wish I wasn't, so maybe I can feel something. I mean, I don't even feel any different. It's freaking me out," She stated, looking around the room. "I thought I would feel much more different."

She saw her mother give her a smile, barely. "You'll feel it, Hon. I know it seems scary and incredibly impossible right now. But, you will feel it. Your going to be a mom, and Jess is going to be with you the whole way."

"I don't know," Rory sighed. "I don't know if I can be a mom."

"Oh, please. If I can be a _grandmother_, then you can be something as simple as a mom. I mean, do you know what you did to me? Grandma Lorelai? Now, that is freaky."

She chuckled, "All you have to do is spoil the kid and give him cookies, and you'll buy his love. I have to do the hard stuff. He's going to hate me one day, he's going to wish that he had some other Mom. And that's hard for me."

"I remember the first time you told me that you hated me."

"I was six."

"Still. I thought you would wait until you were fifteen or something to hate me. I thought that if you were starting this early, I didn't know what you were going to think of me when you were this age," Lorelai looked at her daughter with a doubting expression. She placed a hand on her arm.

Rory rolled her eyes and kissed her mother's forehead. "If it means anything, I love you. And yes, there might be those moments where I wish that you were dead, but they pass."

"Aww, thanks."

"No problem," She smiled. "I hope that this is how I am with my child when he has a baby. If only I'd be so lucky."

"You will be, Hon. Because I was just like you. I had my doubts, also. But, don't worry about it. You have Jess to help you…even though I'm sure that you could do it alone."

She furrowed a brow, shaking her head. The empty feeling in her stomach was back. "Please don't say that. I don't ever want to think of me having to do this without Jess. He has to be there with me, or else I don't think that I could do it."

"You don't know if--,"

"Ehm, excuse me."

They turned their heads to see who was at the door. A tall nurse was standing in the door, with a baby in her arms. When Rory looked closer, she knew that it was her baby. "You said that you wanted to breast feed. I think it's time. The little guy is hungry."

Rory nodded, shifting on the hospital bed. The nurse placed the baby in her arms carefully and then stepped back. "Don't get discouraged, it might take him some time to latch on properly."

"That's alright. Is it okay if you give us some privacy? I'll call you if I need help," She tried her best to be polite about it. But, of course, it made her uncomfortable with everyone looking at her. The nurse excused herself from the room and she was left with her mother.

"Do you want me to go too?" Lorelai pointed her thumb to the door.

She shook her head. "Of course not. I need some company anyway."

_Knock._

They both turned to the door again, and as Rory lifted her shirt, she gestured to Lorelai so she could get the door. Lorelai walked to the door and opened it slowly, only to reveal Jess.

Rory smiled at him and watched him step into the room. She knew he was trying his hardest to keep his eyes on her face, so he wouldn't look like a pig if he looked…downward. He walked over to the bed and sighed.

"How was the walk?" She flinched and looked at the baby. "He just bit me."

"Honey, that happens," Lorelai chuckled, walking over to them. "And it kind of hurts the first couple of weeks. That's why it's so important to get him to latch on well."

"Um…" Jess stood there awkwardly. "Is this a bad time?"

"No. Actually, you're here at a great time, old Jess-o. It's the father's duty to support the mother while her breasts swell and hurt like hell. So, I should just go and let you two be alone," Lorelai nodded at them, and then kissed her daughter's forehead before walking out.

Rory then looked at Jess again and smiled. "It took you a while."

"Yeah…I was thinking."

She blinked. She was dying to know what he was thinking at that moment. But she knew that she was never going to get him to give her a truthful answer. She looked down at the baby and sighed. "He doesn't want to eat."

"I heard that it's hard the first few weeks," Jess nodded, making conversation.

"Right. The nurse said that…but still. I just wish he would help me feed him. It's hard to see him so skinny and helpless," Rory sighed, and tried her best to accommodate the child. "Come on."

"I wouldn't worry, Rory. I'm sure he'll come around."

"I hope so," She tried nearing his face again so he would have the opportunity to latch on. Then, letting him do whatever he was going to do, she looked up at Jess and smiled. "So, how are you doing?" Vague answer forthcoming.

He blinked, looking down. "You know, fine."

"Well, I _don't _know. That's why I'm asking. We haven't really talked about this."

"About what?"

She rolled her eyes, knowing that he was just trying to avoid the subject. "About the baby, Jess. We haven't talked about what's going to happen. I mean, I know we've danced around the subject before, but now that it's real…it's--,"

He looked up at her with his sad eyes. "Different?"

"Yes, different. Especially with all that's happening with us."

Jess looked at her with a challenging expression. He sat down in the chair next to her. "What's happening with us? Last time I checked, we were just the same. Friends, right?"

"If you want to pretend that we are, that's fine. But, don't tell me that we've just been friends for the last month. It's like saying that we didn't sleep together and that the baby that's in my arms is imaginary."

Now, his eyes glowed of concern. "Don't you wish it was like that?"

Rory thought about it for a second. There had been times when she had thought that it would be better like that. But, then, she looked at the baby in her arms. Dark eyes and light hair. His eyes were the replicas of Jess's. They made you want more. They make you want to love him. But she had seen the cold side of those eyes. When they looked at you like that, it made you wish that you weren't alive.

"I don't know what I would have done differently, honestly," She shrugged. "All I know right now is that I think I'm happy. I have a good family. We have somewhere to live. I have you. There's nothing more that I could possibly want."

"A college degree? A good job? That's just naming a few."

"Why are you being so negative about this?" Rory exclaimed, shaking her head. "It's like it's you who's doubting all of this. Because I'm fine."

"I heard you." His eyes made her shiver at the moment. They had some hurt in them. And she remembered that shade of brown. But she couldn't place where she had seen them before.

"Heard me? What are you talking about?"

"When you were giving birth. You said that you wished you could take it all back. And you meant it."

Rory furrowed a brow, "I don't remember."

He sighed, "The point is not if you remember or not. It's the fact that you said it. And the way you sounded. I wanted so badly to take your place there. Because I can't see you hurt like that. The way you were pleading."

"I was in pain, Jess. I wasn't thinking clearly."

"I'm not sure that it was only the pain."

Rory then suddenly jumped. She looked at the baby and saw him sucking happily. Her eyes glowed and she beamed at Jess. "He did it. I'm breast-feeding. Look, Jess!" She shifted the baby, but carefully so he wouldn't let go.

Jess leaned over and saw the small baby concentrated on drinking away. "He should be on one of those 'Got Milk?' commercials."

She laughed, smiling at the baby. Her heart was filled with joy, and she recognized it immediately. "Oh my god, Jess. I'm happy. I feel something, like mom said I would. I'm so happy." She whispered, placing a finger on the baby's forehead. She leaned down and kissed his forehead.

"Your really happy?" Jess looked at her in confusion.

"Yes, incredibly." Rory looked at Jess suddenly and gave him a nod. "I don't resent you, Jess. For anything you did. This was fate and I'm glad that you ruined my life. Because it's the best thing that has happened to me."

Jess gave her a sigh and then looked back at the little kid. He took his hand and grazed it over his sock-covered feet. "I think we're getting old."

"Way too old," She agreed, leaning back. Happy expression and everything.


	18. Unresolved Feelings

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, guys. You know I love 'em. This is another chapter, and I hope it fills all your expectations. Even though it's a little weird writing Rory and Jess with a baby. I'm still trying to get the image clear in my head. lol.

Anyways, read on!

--

"Are you sure you want that you want to leave so early? I mean, we can wait for the afternoon if you want."

"Mom, this is just another excuse to try and get me to stay longer."

"Well, the doctor didn't look too sure about it last time I talked to him."

"Was that the lunch date you had planned, or are you just going to talk to him behind my back when you go out this Friday?" Rory questioned her mother, narrowing her eyes on her guilty eyes. "I was never told the details."

"Don't do this," Lorelai shook her head, standing up. "Don't grill me on something that you knew was going to happen. I was going to have to get over Luke some time…and now is the best time."

"Why now? Why can't you wait until you know that it's actually over and there's no chance? Mom, you never know."

"With everything that's happened now, I want it to be over."

Rory looked at her mother uncertainly. She had still kept the message hidden from her, and maybe she would change her mind once she heard what she had to say. Because her and Luke couldn't be over. It was her ro-model for this whole thing. She glanced at her mother and then down at the floor.

"What has happened?"

"Nothing…its just too much stress. You know, having that hanging over your head. It's better for it to be over with so you can have closure." Lorelai nodded at her daughter and then sat back down, making sure that she understood the whole reason. But she just couldn't let her know about the kiss. It was too much for her to handle right after she had a baby.

Rory sighed, feeling a bit guilty. "Well, then, for the sake of closure…"

"What?"

"I have something to tell you," She bit her lip, leaning back. "Please promise me you won't get mad at me or Lane. Remember we had the best of things in mind. I didn't know how you felt about it until now."

"Rory, spit it out."

"It's Luke…he left you a message."

Lorelai gave her a confused look. "Okay…"

"It wasn't just a message…well, not the normal kind that Luke would leave you. He was drunk at the time…and he just kind of babbled. I don't exactly remember what he said…" Rory lied.

"Yes you do. Now, whatever it is, I want to know. Preferably now than later."

"I—I—he said something about the party and how you wanted him to tell you that he loved you. And then he said he loved you but that you would find another excuse for you two not to be together…he thinks that you just really don't want to be with him," Rory ended the rant shakily, trying to search her mother's face for any feeling. She could see a fake smile peering out of her neutral expression.

Lorelai clenched her jaw and kept the smile on her face. "Thank you for telling me now. I think it was better that I heard it from you."

"Are you okay?"

"Perfectly okay, honey," She rubbed her daughter's arm before standing up and placing her sweater over her shoulders. "Um, I think we should go. If you really do insist on going home now, Jess should be waiting outside with the baby."

"You do know Luke is going to be out there?"

"Oh my god, Rory, I am perfectly capable to handle seeing Luke. I have been doing it for days now, I'm used to it. Now, let's go."

Rory nodded and let her mother help her up from the bed. It was a little weird getting up after she had been sitting down for so long, but she soon got the hang of it by the time they got down the hallway. There was a crowd of people waiting for them, with balloons and presents.

"Hey!" Rory exclaimed, walking a little faster.

Christopher stepped forward and helped her the rest of the way, throwing a smile at Lorelai. Once she was over at the group, she saw everyone's cheerful faces…except one certain smirk.

Emily, Richard, Luke, Lane, Christopher, and Jess were standing around her. Before she could think, she reached Jess and gave him a sideways hug before taking the baby into her own arms. She saw Jess let out a sigh of relief, and she smiled at herself.

"Oh, Rory, the baby is beautiful," A beaming Emily was standing next to her husband. "But I can hardly see any of you in him. Except some of the expressions."

Rory threw a look at Jess and then looked at the baby. "It's all Jess, really. But I would rather it be that way. It would have freaked me out way more if he had looked like me."

"Honey, are you feeling alright?" Chris gave her a look of concern. "Did you get enough sleep to be able to be walking like this?"

"Dad, I didn't run a marathon. It's not like it was the most exhausting thing in the world. It happened, it's in the past, I'm alright," She smirked. Lane was standing behind Jess, keys in her hands. She turned to her friend. "Lane! I haven't seen you in a_ long_ time."

"I feel weird about hospitals," Lane gave Rory a cheerful expression, pushing Jess aside so she could get a good view of the baby. "A Jess in the making."

"It's weird, isn't it?"

"Extremely." But all Rory could do is beam and smile at Jess. Who was less talkative than some.

Richard gave Jess a weird look, looking a bit proud. He stepped forward to look at Rory. "I think me and your grandmother should be getting going. We don't want to smother you after you just got out of a very uncomfortable state."

"Thanks, Grandpa. Really." Rory gave him a kiss on the cheek, trying to make sure she didn't squish the baby. When she had finished saying goodbye to her grandparents, she merely had one person to greet. "Luke."

"Rory. How are you doing?" Luke tried to act as well as he could, trying not to look around at the sick people around him.

"Fine," She chuckled. "I'm glad you came, Luke. It always means a lot to me."

"Well, I'm glad your doing better now. The baby does have a little of something from you in him," Luke tried to smile, but it came out awkward as always. "He hasn't tried to insult me yet, so, that's a good sign."

"I hope so," Rory snickered, throwing a look at Jess. "Are we ready to go?"

"Lane said that she would give us a ride. She said she wanted to have 'girl talk' with you. Now, I only agreed assuming that you didn't want to ride with Lorelai," He proposed, knowing that it would have been the first thing to cross her mind.

Lorelai shook her head. "No, no. The old people are going away now. I need a good cup of coffee anyways. Maybe I'll pass by tomorrow to see how your doing, Hon."

"Thank you, Mom." She smiled, letting her mother kiss her forehead. "Come on, then." She exclaimed, Lane and Jess suddenly perking up.

"Can I hold him?" Lane asked excitedly. "He should know his Aunt Lane before anyone else."

"Even his mother?" Rory rolled her eyes, but she saw Lane nodding her head. She hesitantly placed the baby in Lane's arms. At first, he looked startled and let out a cry. But, as soon as they got moving, he was too busy looking around to care if his mom was holding him or not.

Jess threw an arm around Rory, but she gave him a confused look. "Oh, come on."

"Come on what, Jess? You still don't get to be a little weasel," She smirked as she shook his arm off of her shoulders. "So, how does this work?"

"How does what work?" He eyed Lane carefully, making sure she was handling the baby right.

"I mean, when we get home...what are we supposed to do? Where is our home?"

"The apartment. Me and Luke did some last minute stuff…it's ready."

"The nursery isn't ready…"

"No, but we'll be working on that this week. It'll be ready soon. You have all the baby stuff, and all we need to do is sleep with the baby in the room. We were going to do that for the first few weeks, anyways," He shrugged.

Rory smiled. "You put a lot of thought into this, didn't you?"

"Glad you noticed," He smirked, placing his arm around her shoulder once again. This time, she just let it be and warmed up to it.

--

"It's driving me crazy."

"Well, then, you shouldn't have let your hormones overtake you that night, because this is what your going to be hearing every night," Rory replied, bouncing up and down in the hope that he would stop crying.

Jess shook his head, shutting his book. "Give him to me."

"Why?"

"You haven't gone to the bathroom in at least twelve hours, give him to me. And take the opportunity to take a bath, also," He scrunched up his nose and extended his hands.

Rory weighed her options for a second, but then found the toilet very inviting. "Fine…but, I'm going to take a _quick _shower. No bath."

"Okay," He chuckled, taking the baby into his arms. "And while you're at that, you might want to think of a name. I'm really starting to hate having to call him 'him.'"

"Harold."

"Stop doing that just to bother me."

"What?" She fluttered her eyelashes in an innocent act.

"You know what," Jess mumbled. "Picking bad names just to piss me off."

As Rory walked down the hall, she simply smiled to herself.

Jess stood there with the baby in his arms for two seconds, before he broke into tears. He didn't seem to care how many times Jess jumped up and down or even sat down or stood up.

"Ugh, come on, Harold." The baby cried even harder. "Alright, we'll cross that one off the list. Geez."

"_Are you alright out there?"_

They heard Rory's voice over the shower. Jess mustered up all of his voice to try to sound casual. "Yeah!" The baby apparently didn't like the sound of his voice, so, he started crying louder and louder.

"_Jess…"_

"Rory, we're fine! I think he'd like to go for a walk!"

"_No! It's only the first day, we don't know if he should be going out! The sunlight, Jess!"_

He walked down the hall and positioned himself in front of the door. "What? Should I put sunscreen on him or something? God, Rory, he can handle a little sun."

"_I will come out there, I swear! Do something to entertain him."_

"Okay," He groaned as he walked back into the living room. Where were the baby toys? He couldn't remember everything Rory had told him when they had gotten home. He hastily opened up a cabinet, but there was simply scissors and his ciggerates.

He heard the shower go off and a wet Rory in a towel ran down the hall.

"Is he okay?"

"He's fine," Jess muttered, looking down.

Rory shook her head, "It's okay, Jess. You'll get it eventually." She took the baby from him and balanced him in her hands, pushing him against her chest so the towel wouldn't fall. "Hi." As soon as the baby saw his mother, the crying calmed down, and hiccups replaced it.

Jess ran a hand through his hair, "I think I'm going to take a walk."

She saw him take his ciggerates and leave the apartment in a rush. "Jess." She bit her lip and then looked down at the baby. All she could do is get changed before she went after him. But she'd have to wait. The baby.

--

_Click._

Rory opened her eyes with a bit of laziness and looked over at whom made the noise. Jess had only come through the bedroom door, he had a small towel wrapped around his waist, his hair wet.

"Did you just come in?" She yawned, looking at her watch. "It's three o'clock in the morning."

"I know. Sorry. I had to take a shower."

She shook her head, untangling herself from the covers. She crawled over to the edge of the bed, where she let her feet hang. "Where were you? When I went to bed, I was waiting for you."

"I didn't mean to make you wait." Jess sighed as he went over to the closet, taking out boxers and a T-Shirt. "I just needed to come in here and get my clothes. I can sleep out on the couch if you want."

Rory blinked, "What's going on?"

"Nothing. My walk went a little late."

"Where were you, Jess? I called Luke to see if you had gone to the diner, but he had no idea where you were. I was worried about you."

"Sorry, I just got a little bit stressed," Jess shrugged, hugging his clothes to his chest. But, he could see that Rory wasn't buying it. "I'm really tired, Rory…I just need to go change."

"Fine." She crossed her arms over her chest and watched him walk out. Noise wasn't what kept her awake for the next ten minutes, it was the fact that Jess wasn't in the bed with her. It was going to be the first time that they were in a bed together since the night that they had spent together.

And what she remembered from that night was not the fighting, but it was the actual being next to him on the floor, all tangled up with each other. It was hard wood floor, but she was never more comfortable in her life.

"You awake?"

She jumped, startled, as she stared at a freshly dressed Jess in the doorway. "I couldn't sleep." She sat up as she watched him walk over to his side of the bed. "I was thinking."

"Not something new with you," A sarcastic response was never good.

"Right. But this time I was thinking of how much I wanted to see how it would be to sleep in the same bed with you." She found herself spilling her guts unintentionally.

He paused his movements and then looked at her through the darkness. Before he could stop himself, he had climbed into the bed and was now watching her silently. "Is it what you had always dreamed of?"

"Stop it, Jess. I didn't come to you so you can mock…I just told you the truth. And it's less than you deserve after the way you walked out of here this afternoon," She shook her head, facing him now. "This is only the first day, Jess. It'll only get harder."

"I didn't want to let you down."

"And you thought that you let me down by not being able to soothe a screaming baby? Jess, I have never been so happy with you in my life. It's great how your dealing with this…I'm surprised you didn't go running for the door the second you saw the baby."

He was now under the covers, his cold feet slightly touching her leg. "I almost did."

Rory laid herself down so her head was resting on the pillow again. Their faces were now dangerously close, and she could almost feel his breath on her cheek. She used one of her feet to take off the opposite foot's sock and then repeated the movement with the other foot. She touched his feet with her's. Now they were both cold and bare footed.

She sighed, "You know, that night...I could barely sleep. I was in middle school again, and the fact that you had your arm around me, and you kept on kissing my hands…it was the most beautiful thing in the world."

He lifted his hand to caress her hair. "Huh."

"Like this, you can make me feel like the most beautiful girl in the world."

"Maybe that's because you are," His smirk could be seen even if it was pitch black. "You know what I find funny? The baby is actually sleeping right now."

"It's really weird, the doctor said that we would probably be kept up by him the whole night." She smiled and pressed her warm fingertips against his forehead. She played with the small, wet curls that rested on his forehead. His hair was always her favorite when he didn't put a ton of gel into it.

"Sometimes," He lifted her hand and brought it to his lips, so he could kiss the slightly bitten fingernails. "I just wish that we had that night back."

"I was so awkward…it made me feel like a little girl the whole time."

"You were perfect," He shook his head, making sure that he didn't miss to kiss every little part of her hands. "I've been wanting to do this for the longest time."

"And we didn't do it because it was wrong…it still is. I had Tristin."

"Can we not talk about him? Or anything else that had happened after that night. Let's pretend you didn't get pregnant, and we were in the dark in your dorm room. Paris isn't home," He slightly touched the bare skin between her sweat pants and her old night shirt. "No roommates."

She closed her eyes, remembering that moment. "You're tempting me."

"Good."

"Not good," She shook her head, letting out a shiver. She sat up and ran a hand through her now messy hair. "I think we should stop this."

He challenged her, sitting up also, and dragging her onto his lap. "Why?"

"Because of all of the reasons we didn't before," But she was melting slowly.

He started kissing her neck in slow movements. "Do you really want that?"

Her head was reeling and she needed to stop for a breath. Before she could even respond to it, the baby let out a cry. They looked at each other guiltily. It was like it was a wake up call to what was really happening.

"I have to go get him."

After the words were spoken, there was no turning back. She was up and was next to the crib in three second, shaking off the feeling that Jess provokes every time.

--

"Coffee and make it quick!" Lorelai exclaimed, throwing herself onto a stool. She looked up at Luke and smiled. "Hi…why can't I see your flannel shirt flying in the wind?"

He shook his head, "We're closed."

"You always say that, but just cave anyways."

"Not tonight…I'm tired, I have to go to sleep. I'm surprised your back here after the day you've had."

"Yeah, well, that 'S' on my cape is not for 'sweet.'"

"No coffee. You won't be able to sleep tonight."

"Oh, come on, Luke…please." She gave him the best of her puppy face. Without warning, he leaned down and caught her in a kiss. When he pulled away to serve her coffee, she pressed her fingers against her lips. "What was that?"

Luke looked back at her and shrugged. "Don't pout."

She looked down, the conversation she had had with Rory was ringing in her head. "I don't think we can do this anymore." He looked at her in surprise, as he poured the coffee.

"I don't exactly know what we're doing."

"We're kissing, we're talking like we're back together, there's flirty banter…your giving me coffee…this is not supposed to be happening," Lorelai rubbed her temples and picked up her purse.

"You wanted the coffee," He stopped her with his hand. "Don't go…can we at least talk about this?"

"I don't think there's anything to talk about this time."

"Are we breaking up…again?"

"How can we be breaking up if we were never even together?" Lorelai exclaimed, taking a step forward this time. "This was wrong, I let my feelings get the best of me."

"I don't understand."

"I don't think you're meant to. I didn't want you to think that we were anything. We're not in a relationship…we broke up. It's over with, and no feelings can change that anymore," She tried to reason with it.

"But…if you love me and I love you too then why can't this work?"

"I gave you a reason, Luke. You chose to ignore it…we never got anything resolved. For right now, this is how it has to be. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Don't go."

She looked at him again and he looked so sad that it was heart breaking. She tried her best to give him a crooked smile as she placed her purse back on the counter. "Okay. I won't go. I won't go because we're friends…and I do love you."

"Just friends?"

"I think that's best." She sat down slowly, knowing that he was watching her every move. She gave him a pat on the hand and then turned back to her coffee. "So…"

"More coffee?" He smirked, taking the pot and lifting it.

"Of course."

--

A/N: If you're going to read, please tell me what you think about it by _reviewing_!


	19. Run

Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls, only the plotline.

--

A lapse in judgment. A simple mistake that could be fixed if she was any other girl and this was any other situation. She tried, tried hard. But it didn't work, not really. Dialing fast and calling just to yell doesn't work. _Calling just to yell. _And a baby cries. A baby cried.

_A baby cries._

"Dammit," She swore quietly before running down the hall. "Oh, Baby."

_Thump._

_Bam._

The crying isn't soothed and she simply kissed his forehead before crying softly into his small, delicate head. He didn't like the feeling of his mother's tears, so he yelped and cried until his face turned red. "Don't come back," She whispered slowly to herself. And maybe for the baby too. "Oh, please, do not come back."

"Honey?" She suddenly saw her mother's body in the doorway, but it doesn't help like it usually does. "Oh, Honey. Luke—he went. To find him. It's not going to be long until he comes back to you, I promise."

"They took him." People might think she was crazy, if she kept on going with this. She sighed, holding the baby tightly. "He didn't leave! I'm telling you, they took him. They—they hurt him."

Lorelai paused for a second before stepping forward and trying her best to smile. "I know, Babe. And we believe you. Luke will find _them _and then everything will be okay." Silence, except for Rory's small sobs. "Let me take the baby."

Suddenly, something came over her, she held the baby closer and simply stepped back. "Don't you take him! He's mine, and he's Jess's. Not anyone else's to take. Jess—he was mine. But what happened? They took him away from me."

"Oh," Her face filled with melancholy. "What happened?"

--

Cops.

Cops everywhere. Police back-up as if there was something to do. Everyone panicked so quickly, that there wasn't time to think about it for a second. Rory sat on the porch, alone. Millions of people lined up to ask her questions, but she didn't even glance once their way.

_Then him._

"Rory! What happened? I got a call, from Lorelai, she told me that Jess had…" He stopped talking when he saw her face, and the baby. "Did they do something to the baby? Is he alright?"

Rory balanced the baby on both arms, she rocked him back and forth on the porch swing, not looking forward. She didn't try to speak or anything, only held on. _Held on for dear life. _"Ernest."

He ran a hand through his blonde hair. "Ernie what, Rory? Are you alright? Do you want me to get the paramedics?" A bunch of dumb questions followed after that, she was sure of that. But it was night time, and the moon was out. Too beautiful for anything to make sense. The baby's first full moon.

_Run, Rory, Run. You run._

"I can't run," She whispered to herself.

--

A/N: An update! Finally, right? Anyway, I hope you enjoy this painfully short chapter. I promise things will be explained in the next chapter. I guarantee that the next chapter will be up in less than a week.


	20. Liar, Liar

A/N: Okay, so I couldn't get this chapter up faster because of my stupid computer, it didn't want to upload the document, so you guys had to wait a little longer.

Anyway, here's another chapter.

--

Milk and Cookies.

When was the last time she wanted milk and cookies? Maybe as an eleven year old, in a sleepover. But she guessed that it was being back at her mother's house that made her crave for the sweetness of the cookies, and try to dip the whole cookie in the milk without it falling into the cup.

She looked around in the darkness of her mother's room. Her mother's shadowy body lay beside her, clutching a pillow. She bit her lip as she crawled out of her mother's reach and stood up from the bed. She sighed, walking out into the lonely hallway. It was so empty and dark that she barely recognized it for what it used to be. Full of light and colors, it made you smile.

Not letting her thoughts wonder too far, she poked her head into her old room when she reached the downstairs area. The baby was sleeping soundly, the muffled sound of his breathing was all she could hear.

But she smiled and turned to the kitchen. Her fingers flicked on the light switch and sat down on the table, looking at her hands.

"Hey, you okay?"

She looked up, recognizing Luke's voice. "Hey." Her voice felt small.

"Why are you down here?" He took a step towards the wooden kitchen table and pulled out a chair for him to sit on. "Couldn't sleep?"

Rory shrugged. "I guess."

"Are you alright?"

"Um—yeah." She suddenly realizes something. "Aren't you supposed to be in your apartment?"

"Your mom asked me to stay over tonight, and keep a look out to see if they came back." He paused. "It's mainly to keep you guys safe. I'm sure you don't feel like it right now, but you are—safe, I mean."

"Hm," She barely made a noise.

Luke fidgeted with his hands, "You want something?"

"I was thinking of milk and cookies."

Before she could even say another word, he was already up and getting her late night craving prepared. Glad he wasn't looking at her anymore, she put her face into her hands and sighed. Why was this so hard? She tapped her foot against the kitchen floor, but it didn't help her anxiety.

When she finally looked out of her hands, she saw a tall glass of milk and two chocolate-chip cookies sitting beside it. She looked at Luke and gave him a nod. "Thanks," She took a sip of the milk. "Are you sleeping well? On the couch, I mean. Because that couch can be as hard as a rock. I know it well."

"No. It's fine."

Rory's apetite suddenly left and her stomach was turned into an uncomfortable knot.

He noticed this, but didn't comment. "Um, Rory, I should tell you something. And I know it's a bit late, considering the situation and all, but it's something you should know."

She inhaled deeply, "Shoot."

"When Jess first came to Stars Hollow, it was hard at first to get everything settled in with you. But he was surprisingly patient, and he didn't push it. He didn't go back to his old ways, and it was all fine," He said in a montone voice. "I was suspiscious. I asked him why he was so different. What was motivating him to be this way?" Silence. "He told me."

Rory looked at him, very interested in what he had to say now.

Luke sighed. "He was running. It was all about getting a place to stay—you know, so nobody could find him. And since Stars Hollow was so low key, he would be okay for a while. And also surprisingly, the people he was running from didn't find him for a while. He was getting the hang of things, and being this new father figure was wonderful. A wonderful distraction. Nobody would recognize him, strolling with a girl like you, or playing with his baby."

"No," She whispered to herself.

He hated the look on her face. Maybe, maybe he was breaking her hope. "And, well, the trouble he was in—he was in too deep. He knew they would find him, and the moment they did, he would fleet Stars Hollow and find somewhere else."

Tears stung behind her eyes, but her anger seemed to keep them back. "He played me?"

"Rory, after a while, I'm sure it wasn't all a lie. He loves his son, he does. And he's glad that everything worked out. All the feelings he had, they couldn't all be fake, could they? You guys were together for a while. Those feelings were not fake."

Rory didn't focus on those details anymore. "What was he running from? What kind of trouble?"

"He said he just messed up. And maybe his dealings--"

"Dealings?" She mumbled. "_For god's sake, _dealings."

Luke seemed nervous all of a sudden. Had he done the right thing? Maybe he hadn't. He searched her eyes to make sure she was okay. "Rory--"

"No, Luke, it's okay." She couldn't even think of putting a fake smile on her face. She simply stood up and pursed her lips together. "Goodnight. I should get some sleep."

She trotted up the stairs and into the bathroom. If she didn't start hyperventelating soon, she knew it was coming. She put one hand on each side of the sink and bowed her head down. The nausea circling her stomach made it impossible for her to move. And the unbearable headache was the topping of the cake.

She opened the faucet and splashed cold water on her face, which helped some, but not entirely. Rory simply let herself drown in the cold water and forget about liars. Oh, what a liar.

"Dammit!" She yelled out.

How can all of her life be filled with lies? Everything that had happened be filled with just things he told her so he can keep on running. If she ever felt an ounce of love towards him, it was gone at this moment. And she knew that this time, there was nothing that could bring him back. She could hate him forever and it wouldn't tug at her heart like it always did. She could hate him forever, and he wouldn't even care. Maybe the thought scared her.

He played her. He played her good. How could he look at their baby and lie to him too?

It was sure, never again would she see him. It won't matter.

"Honey!" She heard knocking on the door. "Baby, open the door!"

Her mother's voice sounded too excited for anything she needed right now. Rory turned off the water and shakily opened the door. Her mother was on the phone, a big smile plastered on her face as if it were Christmas. "Babe, they found him."

--

The cold plastic chair against her made her feel cold. It made her feel cold and even more hatred filled her heart as she watched the news closely. The news of the TV in the middle of a police station.

"_And we are here in front of a house in the outskirts of New York where we have found the three men who had taken small town man, Jess Mariano, hostage."_

She winced. Yup, small town man.

"_The police had been searching for him for days and they had not found a lead, until they tracked the fingerprints from Mr. Mariano's apartment in Connecticut to a local bar in New York City. The bartender knew these men very well and pointed to the direction where the men lived."_

"_Now, this has been an interesting story, Shirley. We still have no idea the reason behind these men's irrational behaviour?"_

"_They are now being taken downtown to be questioned."_

Both, the woman and the man had smiles on their faces.

"_We are glad to have this troubling crime solved. In other news…"_

Lorelai placed a hand over Rory's arm, her face filled with excitement. "Aren't you happy? I knew that this was just some misunderstanding that could be solved."

"Mmm," She nodded emptily.

Then, she could see lights outside of the police station, and she recognized a police car pulling up to the driveway. The lights flickered down and soon, Officer Henry – the man who had been helping them with the case – stepped out of the car. Her eyes were attent to see who was next to step out of the car.

But, it was simply another Officer to step towards the building.

Officer Henry had a frown on his face as he approached Rory. "Um, Ma'am, we are deeply sorry, but Mr. Mariano could not come back with us. We gave him the option, but he preferred to be on his way. I'm sorry."

Rory's throat was dry at this point. "What happened to him?"

"He was pretty beaten up, and he wasn't in good conditions at all. But we were most surprised to find that the men who had taken him hostage ran so quickly, we could barely see them when we stepped into the house. Mr. Mariano was gagged and tied, he was in bad condition so we sent the ambulence to help him out. After he got fixed up, he said he would be on his own now."

Was she supposed to be happy as he laid down these news? Was she supposed to be screaming for joy as her mother held her tightly? She never wanted to see him again, so why was she sobbing into her mom's pajamas? Why was she scared for him? Why did she care?

--

A/N: I really want to hear your feelings about this chapter. There's been a lot of new things, and I know it's still a bit confusing. Everything will play out in the next chapters, and you will understand everything much better. (Oh, and sorry for any spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes, I didn't have the chance to look it over.)


	21. AN: Please Read

A/N:

Hey everyone! Okay, so I know this is a bit unexpected but I decided that the last update I did is going to be the last chapter of Butterfly Kisses. But…

And this is a big but.

I do want to continue the story in the form of a sequel. So, yes, I expect that as many people that have read Butterfly Kisses will continue to pursue the story by reading the sequel.

Okay, so, I have to be honest with you guys. I'm not great at sequels. I've tried before with another story and I ended up deleting it. But I do know that the story of Rory/Jess in this story is not complete, so I really want to continue on.

The reason for all this is because I really do have a lot planned, and I don't want to cramp it all into one story, you know? So, this was my solution. I hope you guys like this idea. Because, really, the only difference is that the updates will be in another story with another title.

Thanks, and please let me know what you think!


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